The Wheaton Academy Warrior football team had its season end on Friday night by a score of 20-13 to the Chargers of ACC. The loss marks the second year in a row that the Warriors have made a first-round exit from the class 4A IHSA state playoffs. Wheaton Academy found itself in an early hole and could not dig out of it.
ACC opened the game with a short field and capitalized on a long run of 30 yards to open the scoring. Later in the first, quarterback
Ben Thorson threw an interception which was returned 30 yards for a touchdown to make the score 14-0 at the end of one. The Warriors defense held stout for the remainder of the half, but the offense could not string a drive together, and the score remained 14-0 at halftime.
Wheaton Academy opened the half with ball, and after trading possessions with ACC, the Chargers were able to get on the board again by picking off another of Thorson's passes and returning it 50 yards for a touchdown to extend the lead to 20-0.
Wheaton Academy finally got on the board midway through the 4th quarter on a
Kent Harmon 6-yard touchdown run. The defense forced a quick punt on the ensuing ACC possession, and Wheaton Academy marched down the field and scored again on a 6-yard touchdown pass from Thorson to receiver
Harrison Taylor. After failing to convert on a PAT attempt, the score was 20-13. With only 1:30 left and the Warriors out of timeouts, Wheaton Academy attempted an onside kick which ACC recovered. They kneeled the ball three times to end the game.
On offense, Wheaton Academy amassed 351 total yards.
Kent Harmon was the leading rusher, carrying the ball 10 times for 56 yards and 1 touchdown. Thorson completed 20 of 38 passes for 237 yards, 1 touchdown, and 2 interceptions.
Harrison Taylor caught 6 passes for 90 yards and 1 touchdown.
The defensive effort was particularly dominant, as the Warriors only yielded 84 yards of total offense, 42 of which came on the first drive.
Dimitrie Skakavac was the leading tackler, tallying 13 total tackles with 1 tackle for loss.
Jay Callentine had 7 total tackles with 1 tackle for loss and 1 sack.
