INDIANAPOLIS - In one of the more anticipated games of the weekend featuring a pair of top-10 teams in the NAIA, the Marian football team did not live up to their end of the expectation as No. 3 Indiana Wesleyan rolled over the Knights in a one-sided 77-21 contest. Marian's loss is their first of the season, dropping their record to 4-1 as they end their non-conference stretch.

Indiana Wesleyan had their way offensively all afternoon against the Knights, scoring on their opening drive of the game with a swift 65-yard scoring drive. Marian would answer the score right away, as a 44-yard completion from Tristan Polk to Jameson Coverstone ignited a response ending the six-play drive with a Keagan La Belle touchdown. The score showed the game tied at 7-7 after La Belle's fifth score of the year, but would be one of the last times Marian was in the fight, as the Wildcats offense showed no signs of being denied.

Indiana Wesleyan would answer the Marian touchdown with a Ryan Whitwell receiving touchdown, seeing the point-after-try get blocked by Dwight Lewis III, making the score 13-7. Marian failed to respond as a pair of incompletions on the ensuing drive brought on the punt team, and brought back the Wildcat offense, who marched 90 yards in five plays to take a two-score lead. Indiana Wesleyan ended the first quarter leading 20-7, and after forcing a turnover on downs against Marian on the first drive of the second quarter, continued their scoring run with a Roosevelt Cage rushing touchdown. An interception thrown by Polk quickly brought Indiana Wesleyan back onto the field, where they needed just three plays to extend their lead to 28 points.

Marian would punt on their next drive, failing to slow down Indiana Wesleyan as their opposition again completed a 90-yard drive with a trip to the end zone. Aiming to get some momentum back before halftime, the Knights managed to drive to the IWU 33, but saw their drive stall out with a turnover on downs as a hail mary pass from Polk was batted down. With eight seconds remaining, Indiana Wesleyan managed to run two plays, completing their own hail mary on the final play of the first half, getting a 37-yard touchdown pass from Kyle Antoine to Myles Cox, pushing their lead to 49-7 at the break. Indiana Wesleyan recorded 501 yards in the first half to Marian's 179, and scored on each of their first seven drives of the game.

Marian did little to stop the Wildcats in the second half, as the third-ranked team in the NAIA scored on both of their third quarter possessions, putting any comeback attempt out of reach. Tristan Polk would score on a rushing touchdown with 44 seconds remaining in the third quarter for Marian's second score of the game, but in the fourth quarter more of the same took place, as Indiana Wesleyan opened the period with a 19-yard scoring drive. Marian was able to force one punt in the game coming mid-way through the final period, put allowed a 73-yard scoring run on the penultimate IWU drive of the game, seeing the Wildcats hang 77 on the Knights.

Ben Schoster engineered a scoring drive on his first collegiate action to end the game for the Knights, finding Charles Vaden for a 21-yard touchdown with 37 seconds to play in the game, putting the final points up in the 77-21 loss.

Indiana Wesleyan out-played Marian in nearly every category of the final box score, recording 742 yards of offense and 818 all-purpose yards against the Knights, both the most allowed in school history, which hailed in comparison to Marian's 363 yards of offense. The Wildcats 77 points is the most points allowed in a single game, breaking the mark recorded by Ohio Dominican in the 2008 season, as they scored 11 touchdowns on 12 completed drives in the game. 

Tristan Polk passed for 226 yards and two interceptions in the loss, rushing for a touchdown. Trey Gibson finished as Marian's leading-rusher with 43 yards on the ground, and Jake Reichard led the receivers with eight snags for 81 yards. Schoster completed both passes on his lone drive of the game for 30 yards and his first collegiate touchdown pass, while rushing for 15 yards. Jayshawn Underwood and JT Downey both made eight tackles, and Isaiah Street made six stops. 

Marian begins MSFA Midwest League play on Saturday, October 19, as they host Olivet Nazarene on homecoming weekend. Kickoff is set for 1:05 p.m.

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