Iowa Wesleyan drops home opener

The Iowa Wesleyan football team scored on its first offensive possession on Saturday against Westminster - but that was all the Tigers would get in a 35-7 loss.

After a Tiger stop on Westminster's first possession, the Blue Jays snapped the ball over the punter's head. It rolled to the three-yard line and IW running back Jacquez Hall scampered into the end zone on the very next play. Just like that, it was 7-0 Tigers in the home opener.

'We talk about making dynamic plays on our special teams, and I know it wasn't necessarily something that we did on that one, but sometimes you'd like to think that if we're bringing a lot of pressure, they're thinking about that, and that can lead to bad snaps,” said Tiger coach Michael Richtman. 'It was nice to get started that way, unfortunately we didn't keep it rolling.”

The rest of the first half was a defensive struggle, but the Blue Jays were able to win the field position battle and grind out two scoring drives.

Westminster scored on a five-yard rushing touchdown by DeQuintin Smith with 9:38 left in the second quarter. The Blue Jays then took the lead on a seven-yard touchdown pass from Wyatt Ellis to Travion Mosby with 27 seconds left in the half, bringing the score to 14-7 before halftime.

The dagger came midway through the third quarter. Westminster scored on a four-yard touchdown run by Ellis to make it 21-7. On the next IW drive, linebacker Logan Decker broke it open with a 20-yard pick-six. After three, it was 28-7 Westminster.

Ellis tacked on one more score early in the fourth quarter, running the ball in from two yards out.

The Tiger offense couldn't get anything going after their first score. Rodgers went down with a lower-body injury, the Tigers went 0-11 on third down and converted just three first downs all day.

'I think it became a war of attrition, and they had to have run about twice as many offensive plays as we did,” Coach Richtman said. 'That's a tough place to put your defense in.”

Quarterback Leo Alvarez went 6-15 for 74 yards and one interception in the loss. He was also IW's leading rusher, gaining 18 yards. Damian Tanelus caught two passes for 41 yards to lead the receivers.

Jose McCulloch led the defense with 11 tackles. Chase Tennant had nine. The Tigers fell on two fumbles in the loss.

IW is now 0-3 overall and 0-1 in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference. They'll host Minnesota-Morris in their homecoming game on Saturday, Sept. 28, at 1 p.m.