Illinois Wesleyan Football Previews Salute to Service Game Against North Park

Football to Face NPU in Home Finale

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — After a bye week, the Illinois Wesleyan University football team returns to the gridiron Saturday, Nov. 7, for its final home game of the 2026 season, with North Park University traveling to Tucci Stadium for a 1 p.m. kickoff. Illinois Wesleyan University Athletics reported that the Titans, sitting at 6-2 overall and 4-2 in College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin play, are chasing their best season since 2018 and a postseason berth that remains within reach.

The stakes are plain. A victory would move Illinois Wesleyan to 7-2 with one regular-season game remaining, giving the program its most wins since the 8-2 campaign of 2018, when the Titans went 8-1 in CCIW play and narrowly missed the NCAA Tournament.

Tucci Stadium Hosts Final Home Game Saturday

Saturday’s contest doubles as the program’s second annual Salute to Service game. Active and retired military, first responders, and nurses are welcomed to attend and will receive a gift at entry. Fans can follow a live stream on the CCIW Network, with live stats available through links on iwusports.com.

Illinois Wesleyan arrives off a 44-0 shutout of Elmhurst University on Oct. 24 in Bloomington — the Titans’ first shutout since a 35-0 win over Carthage on Sept. 28, 2024. The defense limited the Bluejays to 123 yards of total offense, the fewest since holding Elmhurst to 104 yards on Oct. 2, 2021.

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North Park comes south riding its own momentum, a 55-34 Homecoming win over Carroll University on Oct. 31. The Vikings have won two of their past three games but enter the week 2-6 overall and 2-4 in league play.

Seven Wins Would Mark Best Season Since 2018

The series history heavily favors the home team. Illinois Wesleyan holds a 60-6 all-time record against North Park, including a 35-0 mark at Tucci Stadium and a 25-6 record away from Bloomington, with eight wins in the past 10 matchups. Last season, the Titans never trailed in a 49-21 victory, breaking a 14-14 tie when assistant coach Danny Kent scored on a three-yard run and Cooper King added a touchdown reception midway through the third quarter before Will Nazha returned a kickoff 91 yards for a score.

Malik Gray powered the Oct. 24 rout with his second four-touchdown game of the season, scampering into the end zone four times on 16 carries for 76 yards. He is the only player in program history to score four or more touchdowns in a game multiple times in a career, let alone in the same season. Gray’s 10 rushing touchdowns rank seventh-most in IWU football history, alongside Nate Hilding (1994) and Maurice Shoemaker-Gilmore (2015), and are the most by a Titan since Brandon Bauer rushed for 12 in 2018. Maury Parker holds the program record with 15 in 1990.

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Bryce Reese earned his first national honor after a second-half special-teams tackle preserved the shutout, landing him on the D3football.com Team of the Week for Oct. 27. He joins Joey DeMaio, Will Nazha, and Matt Worthington as the program’s fourth D3football selection this season — the most since 2022.

On offense, the Titans rank second in the CCIW in total offense at 430.5 yards per game, powered by the league’s top passing attack at 290.3 yards per game in conference play. Will Nazha leads the league at 102.0 receiving yards per game, with Cade Danko sixth at 69.2 and Jimmy Deacy seventh at 62.8. Nazha, 10th nationally in receiving yards with 876, needs just 114 yards Saturday to become the program’s first 1,000-yard receiver since Jack Healy in 2018.

Defensively, IWU has recorded 11 interceptions, second in the CCIW and 34th-most across Division III, with Lucas Lappin leading the team with four. The defensive line leads the conference and ranks 20th nationally with 3.13 team sacks per game, while 7.6 tackles for loss rank 28th-most; opponents have converted just .263 of third downs against the Titans, 13th-best nationally.

Quarterback Dermot Smyth continues climbing the program’s record books. After eclipsing 1,000 career rushing yards on a 56-yard touchdown run Sept. 12 — becoming the first Titan quarterback to reach that mark while also throwing for 5,000-plus yards — he has since joined five others in program history with 6,000-plus career passing yards, sitting top-10 in rushing touchdowns, passing touchdowns, passing yards, and completions.

The regular season closes Saturday, Nov. 14, at 12 p.m. against No. 5 North Central College at Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium in Naperville, Ill. Whether the Titans can extend their home dominance one more time, and whether Malik Gray, Will Nazha, or another Titan adds to their season statistics, remains the open question as kickoff approaches.