MACOMB, Ill. – The Drake University football team showed flashes of promise, but ultimately lacked consistency in a 38-13 loss at Western Illinois on Saturday afternoon.
The Bulldogs fell behind early, 14-0, before rallying to trim that margin to 14-10 at halftime. However, four-straight scores from the Leathernecks proved to be too much to overcome in Drake's final non-conference game of the season.
“We're not interested in the moral victories and the should have, could have things,” Drake head coach Rick Fox said. “We're a good football team, but we have to improve in being consistent in our execution. Our effort is there and we're playing together as a team. But we need consistent execution.”
Drake's Bob Quilico, Jr. (Schaumberg, Ill.) had one of the best games of his career with 13 solo tackles from his safety spot to keep Western Illinois big gains to a minimum while John Hugunin (Oswego, Ill.) added 10 stops.
The Drake (1-2) offense was outgained, 423-to-311 yards, as WIU (2-1) collected 218 rushing yards thanks to a 130-yard day from J.C. Baker.
The Bulldogs' offense was paced by 86 total yards from Conley Wilkins (Overland Park, Kan.) – 66 rushing and 20 receiving – while Grant Menard (Whitefish Bay, Wis.) had a career-high 71 yards receiving.
Facing an early 14-0 deficit, the Drake offense shifted into gear in the second quarter as quarterback Andy Rice (Stevens Point, Wis.) found Menard over the middle for a 16-yard gain and the Bulldogs' first first down of the day as Fox started to call for a hurry-up attack against the Leathernecks. Thirteen plays later, the Bulldogs found themselves in the redzone, but couldn't convert before turning the ball over on downs.
“We want to be changing up the tempo,” Fox said of the hurry-up's success. “For that to work you have to get things going and then you can manipulate the tempo. We had those opportunities and that was really helping us today.”
Despite not putting points on the board, the drive gave the defense, which saw 21 snaps in the first quarter, a much needed rest and the unit responded by forcing punts on WIU's next two possessions.
With 6:37 left in the first half, Drake took possession at midfield and with Cody Thibault (Lone Tree, Colo.) at quarterback. Thibault took the Bulldogs 51 yards on seven plays with a pair of passes to Menard for 35 yards before he found Michael Hudson (Urbandale, Iowa) in the endzone from 10 yards out to trim WIU's lead to 14-7 with 3:41 left in the half.
“He did some nice things and that was a big drive to get us that touchdown,” Fox said of Thibault's series.
The final minute of the half saw plenty of excitement as Drake punted the ball away with 51 seconds left. Nine seconds later, the Bulldog offense was back on the field thanks to John Bloss (Wheaton, Ill.) recording Drake's second interception of the day and returning the ball 19 yards to the WIU 47-yard line.
“That's been an emphasis – to get the ball – and that interception gave us a chance to tie it up,” Fox said. “We ended up with a field goal, but it put us in a good situation heading into the locker room”
Four plays later, Drake moved the ball to the WIU 26-yard with three seconds on the clock and called upon kicker Ben Tesson (Fenton, Mo.). The sophomore split the uprights as time expired to trim WIU's lead to 14-10 at halftime.
Unfortunately for Drake, it couldn't maintain that momentum after halftime as WIU scored on four of its first five possessions of the second half to build up an insurmountable 38-10 lead.
The first of those scores came via kind field position with WIU needing to go just 34 yards to score followed by a blocked punt that Brad Blumenshine returned 27 yards to go up 28-10. Midway through the fourth quarter, WIU quarterback Trenton Norvell hit Quadarias Mireles for a 71-yard touchdown to account for the last of WIU's 38 points.
“Our defense really solidified and played some great defense against a pretty good offensive football team in the second quarter,” Fox said. “On offense we mixed things up and executed. All of our stuff was there, we just needed to execute and we saw that in the second half with some blown opportunities due to failed execution.”
One of those blown opportunities came in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter as the Bulldogs marched 80 yards down the field to cross the goal line on a play that was waved off due to a penalty. Wilkins accounted for 41 of the Bulldogs' yards on that drive that came up empty.
Drake's next possession yielded points as a 35-yard Tesson kick capped an 11-play, 55-yard drive with 4:15 left in the game to account for the final 38-13 tally.
Drake appeared poised to land the first punch of the afternoon when WIU fumbled the opening kickoff to give the Bulldog offense the ball on WIU 17-yard line. However, the Drake offense couldn't advance the ball and a 37-yard field goal attempt glanced off the upright.
“We have to take advantage of that turnover,” Fox said. “We didn't and that changes the whole shape of the game. We've got to get better at that.”
WIU answered the early threat by carving up the Drake defense on a 7-play, 80-yard drive finished by a 7-yard scramble from Norvell. WIU's ensuing possession saw the Drake defense earn its first takeaway of the season as Brad Duwe (Bettendorf, Iowa) picked off a deep pass on the Leathernecks' first play of the drive.
However the Bulldog offense sputtered, punting the ball away three plays later to allow WIU to engineer a 13-play, 74-yard scoring drive from which Drake never recovered.
The Bulldogs return to action next Saturday, Sept. 20 to begin Pioneer Football League action against visiting Marist at Drake Stadium. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m.
