The Illinois Wesleyan football team posted a 33-0 exhibition game win over the Finland National Team on Sunday at Sonera Stadium in Helsinki, Finland.
The Titans amassed 392 yards of total offense (231 rushing and 161 passing) while limiting the Finnish squad to 38 yards total (75 passing and -37 on the ground) and racked up 21 first downs to four for the opposition in the game of four 12-minute quarters.
The Titan defense started out strong, as Finland was limited to negative numbers in the first half with -8 total yards on -17 rushing and nine passing yards.
IWU scored with 3:42 to play in the first quarter on a 23-yard field goal by Michael Kelley, capping a 15 play, 58-yard drive. The Titans made it 10-0 when T.J. Stinde rushed in from 8 yards away with 4:22 left before halftime and Kelley added the extra point kick.
Defensive lineman Joe Schneider recovered a fumble in the Finland end zone for a score with 33 seconds to go in the half when an errant snap sailed over the home quarterback’s head. The double extra point pass failed and IWU led 16-0 at intermission.
Kelley added his second field goal, this one from 27 yards away, with 6:08 to play in the third to put IWU up 19-0 and Stinde scored again, this time on a 39 yard pass from Tyrell Bolden, with 1:21 left in the third quarter. Kelley’s kick got IWU up 26-0.
The final scoring came from running back Mike DeBernardis on a 13-yard gallop, finishing a 12-play, 69-yard drive with 6:51 remaining. Kelley added the kick to leave the final at 33-0.
Stinde finished with 116 yards on eight carries while Sean Conley added 41 yards on three carries. Bolden completed eight of 18 passes for 133 yards and backup James Zabriskie completed four of seven for 28 yards.
Defensively, linebacker Chris Simms led IWU with six total tackles and Kyle Pfister made four stops, including one tackle for yardage loss.
This is IWU’s fifth win in overseas trips. Previous stops were to Hamburg, Germany (1996); Bergamo, Italy (2001); Paris (2005); and Vienna, Austria (2009). In three of those four seasons following the trip, IWU either shared or won the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin title outright.
After the game, as part of their Global Football-organized overseas visit, the Titans entourage will spend four days in Helsinki then will take an overnight ferry to spend four days in Stockholm, Sweden, before returning on June 9.