Senior Sam Fenske catches a pass in the Bears’ game against North Park last month. The Bears had 513 total yards Saturday against Illinois Wesleyan. (Photo by Curran Neenan/Student Life)

Coming into Saturday’s matchup against Illinois Wesleyan University, the Washington University football team sought to avenge their blowout loss the week prior to Wheaton College — and they succeeded in doing so. With a final score of 38-22, the Bears rebounded from last week’s loss, improving to 3-2 on the season. 

A key to this success was WashU imposing its will early. After the Bears’ defense quickly forced a Titans three-and-out, the offense capitalized on the ensuing drive, punctuating it with a one-yard touchdown plunge from junior receiver Cole Okmin. Although Illinois Wesleyan responded soon after with a touchdown of their own, the Bears retook the lead with 6:05 left in the first quarter courtesy of a 37-yard passing touchdown from junior quarterback Matt Rush to senior receiver Jared Harrison. 

Head coach Aaron Keen attributed this early success to the team’s preparation during the week, emphasizing how well the team did “responding to the adversity” of losing last week’s game. The players knew “we’d set a standard for not necessarily how we wanted to execute, but the passion with which we [wanted to] attack things — we just needed to clean some things up,” Keen said. “I thought they did that, [and] we came out and played some really good football from the beginning — offensively, defensively and on special teams.”

The Bears used this willingness to overcome adversity during the game, as stalled drives — particularly those extended by Illinois Wesleyan penalties — beset WashU’s offense. Timely defensive plays, however, kept the Titans from exacerbating the Bears’ offensive woes, including an interception with 15 seconds remaining in the first half. Keen attributed the offensive struggles to Illinois Wesleyan “running some line twists [that let them] get to us a bit in our pass protection.” He mentioned that, at halftime, he challenged the team to be more physical. “I thought we got ‘out physicaled’ at the end of the second quarter, so that was our challenge to our players, to step up our game there,” Keen said. “[We] just gave them some simple schemes and they did a good job of executing some of those simple schemes that we hadn’t [used] in the first half.”

Most salient of these adjustments was a more aggressive offensive attack, which finished the game with 513 total yards. After a couple chunk plays to open the half, Rush connected with freshman receiver Collin Goldberg on a 32-yard touchdown strike just 1:17 into the third quarter. As the game progressed, the offense found increasing success with the run game, with freshman running back Kenvorris Campbell eventually exploding for a 65-yard rushing touchdown just a few minutes into the fourth quarter. The defense complemented this offensive success by stiffening in the second half; the Bears forced and recovered a fumble with 12:28 left in the fourth quarter and held the Titans scoreless until just 4:13 remained in the game. 

Looking ahead, WashU will kick off at 1 p.m. in an away game against Augustana (5-1) on Oct. 16. Keen mentioned that, in order to continue their success, the team must grow  the momentum they built during their matchup against Illinois Wesleyan. “Virtually everybody is kind of on an even playing field, so it’s how you execute, how you play, how you prepare,” Keen said. “Now [that] we’re excited about an outcome, [it’s important we] can build on that momentum and go out and attack next week the same way.”

More on the first season of football under new head coach Aaron Keen:

Exploding Kittens and coffee: One receiver’s strong start with the Bears

‘Building from the ground up’: Football prepares to start the Keen era

Football dominates North Park for Keen’s first win as a WashU head coach