Wesleyan's Shea Dwyer Sets School Record with 213 Rushing Yards, Scores 5 TDs in 35-21 Win over Hamilton

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. -- Wesleyan running back Shea Dwyer, a grad student, rushed 27 times for a Wesleyan-record 213 yards and scored all five Wesleyan TDs, four of them on the ground and one on a reception, to carry the Cardinals to a 35-21 home victory over Hamilton here this afternoon.  Wesleyan evened its record at 1-1 on the season and defeated Hamilton for the first time since 2007.  Hamilton fell to 0-2 on the season.  Wesleyan visits Colby for its next outing Sat., Oct. 9 while Hamilton hosts Trinity the same day.

Dwyer hit paydirt for the first time in the game at the 4:28 mark of the first quarter, capping a 10-play, 90-yard march that consumed 4:58.  Dwyer had 33 yards rushing during the series, including the final two-yard burst for the TD.  On Wesleyan's next possession, Dwyer did the honors with a 29-yard screen pass to the left, darting past one would-be tackler early in the play and skipping up the left sideline for the TD, completing a 10-play, 88-yard drive to make it 14-0 at 10:08 of the second period.  After Hamilton failed on a 4th-and-1 pass attempts at the Wesleyan 44 two series later, Wesleyan had excellent field position. Two Dwyer runs for 49 yards, the second one for 17 yards and the TD, sandwiched a seven-yard pass interference penalty to account for the 56 yards.  That put the Cardinals ahead 21-0 with 2:50 left in the half.  Dwyer closed out the half with 135 yards rushing on 17 attempts.

Hamilton closed the gap to 21-7, scoring with :40 remaining on a one-yard sneak by sophomore QB Jordan Eck, capping a 69-yard march in nine quick plays. A 28-yard pass from Eck to sophomore Graham Sadler got the ball to the one-yard line.

The teams traded TDs in the second half with Wesleyan scoring first as Dwyer darted in from two yards out at 4:56 of the third period to make it 28-7.  Like the last Hamilton TD, it was a pass, a 29-yard connection from junior QB Matt Coyne to junior Kyle Weiss, that got the ball close to the goal line.  Coyne completed 14 of 19 passes for 175 yards on the afternoon.  Senior Pete Modera and freshman Ernest Wingate both were on the receiving end of four Coyne tosses to lead the Wesleyan receiving corps.  Each had a key catch during the Cardinals' first TD drive, both going for 21 yards.

Hamilton, which got a game-high 10 receptions for 99 yards from sophomore Kevin Petrick, scored its second-half TDs on an eight-yard connection from Eck to   senior Scott Kleinhaus, who ended the game with five catches for 70 yards, and a dazzling 89-yard kickoff return by junior Dylan Isenberg.  Isenberg, who was held to 48 yards rushing on 16 attempts after gaining 136 yards on 29 carries in Hamilton's opener at Tufts last week, curled up the right side after receiving the ball at the 11, then raced past two would-be tacklers around the 25 and cut across the field, eventually scoring on the left side while pulling away from the pursuing pack.  

Before Isenberg's runback, Wesleyan had just made it 35-14 at the 5:04 mark on Dwyer's 14-yard scamper up the middle following a failed 4th-down conversion by Hamilton deep in its own territory.  Dwyer had broken the Wesleyan single-game rushing mark of 190 yards, set by Waldo Williams in 1986 against Trinity College, on a 15-yard run with about eight minutes to go in the game, giving him 192 at the time.  He added 21 yards on his final three carries, giving him 78 yards on 10 tries in the second half, for his 213 total.

Eck had a busy day for the Continentals, completing 24 of 46 passes for 267 yards.  His final attempt was picked off by Wesleyan junior Brett Bandazian near midfield, giving the Cardinals the ball with 1:38 left.  Three kneel-downs by Coyne closed out the contest.

Wesleyan gained 398 yards to Hamilton's 325 and time of possession was just about even. First downs favored Wesleyan, 21-17.


Score by Quarters     1  2  3  4   Score
-----------------    -- -- -- --   -----
Hamilton College....  0  7  7  7  - 21       Record: (0-2,0-2)
Wesleyan University.  7 14  7  7  - 35       Record: (1-1,1-1)


Scoring Summary:
1st 04:28 WES - Shea Dwyer 2 yd run (Sebastian Aguirre kick), 10-90 4:58, HAM 0 - WES 7
2nd 10:08 WES - Shea Dwyer 29 yd pass from Matt Coyne (Sebastian Aguirre kick), 10-88 5:19, HAM 0 - WES 14
    02:50 WES - Shea Dwyer 17 yd run (Sebastian Aguirre kick), 2-56 0:31, HAM 0 - WES 21
    00:40 HAM - Jordan Eck 1 yd run (George Taylor kick), 9-69 2:06, HAM 7 - WES 21
3rd 04:56 WES - Shea Dwyer 2 yd run (Sebastian Aguirre kick), 8-64 3:25, HAM 7 - WES 28
    01:02 HAM - Scott Kleinklaus 8 yd pass from Jordan Eck (George Taylor kick), 9-67 3:47, HAM 14 - WES 28
4th 05:04 WES - Shea Dwyer 14 yd run (Sebastian Aguirre kick), 1-19 0:10, HAM 14 - WES 35
    04:48 HAM - Dylan Isenberg 89 yd kickoff return (George Taylor kick), , HAM 21 - WES 35


                                    HAM      WES
FIRST DOWNS...................       17       21
RUSHES-YARDS (NET)............    25-58   40-223
PASSING YDS (NET).............      267      175
Passes Att-Comp-Int...........  46-24-1  19-14-1
TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS.....   71-325   59-398
Fumble Returns-Yards..........      0-0      0-0
Punt Returns-Yards............     3-46      0-0
Kickoff Returns-Yards.........    6-166     3-74
Interception Returns-Yards....     1-11     1-18
Punts (Number-Avg)............   3-30.0   4-41.0
Fumbles-Lost..................      0-0      2-1
Penalties-Yards...............     5-27     7-66
Possession Time...............    30:26    29:34
Third-Down Conversions........  4 of 15   3 of 8
Fourth-Down Conversions.......   2 of 7   0 of 0
Red-Zone Scores-Chances.......      2-3      4-4
Sacks By: Number-Yards........      0-0     2-18


RUSHING: Hamilton College-Dylan Isenberg 16-48; George Taylor 1-13; James
Stanell 2-2; Jordan Eck 6-minus 5. Wesleyan University-Shea Dwyer 27-213; Matt
Coyne 5-18; Te'Rhon O'Neal 5-minus 1; TEAM 3-minus 7.

PASSING: Hamilton College-Jordan Eck 24-46-1-267. Wesleyan
University-Matt Coyne 14-19-1-175.

RECEIVING: Hamilton College-Kevin Petrick 10-99; Scott Kleinklaus 5-70;
James Stanell 3-21; Ryan Cray 2-24; Dylan Isenberg 2-6; Graham Sadler 1-28;
Donovan Flint 1-19. Wesleyan University-Pete Modera 4-57; Ernest Wingate 4-25;
Shea Dwyer 2-40; Joe Giaimo 2-21; Kyle Weiss 1-29; Te'Rhon O'Neal 1-3.

Attendance:  2,000