CRESTVIEW HILLS, KY –  The Thomas More University football team ended the season with a 28-16 win over the Kentucky Wesleyan College Panthers in the annual Bourbon Bowl rivalry game. The Saints also celebrated their seniors prior to the game. Thomas More finishes the 2026 season with a 3-8 overall record and a 3-6 record in the conference.
 

• After forcing the Panthers to punt, the Saints recovered their own punt to continue their drive but were unable to come away with points.
• Both teams traded punts before Thomas More started a drive with 2:07 left in the opening period on the Kentucky Wesleyan 43-yard line. On the third play of the drive, Griffin Scalf threw a 24 yard pass to JT Cooper for a touchdown before Davis Burleigh hit the extra point as the Saints took a 7-0 lead.

• Thomas More scored on their first drive of the second quarter as Ben Chesser capped off a 12-play, 72-yard drive that took 6:49 off the clock with a nine-yard touchdown run.
• The Panthers attempted a comeback before halftime as they scored on a 33 yard field goal and a 45-yard touchdown pass but the Saints held onto a 14-20 lead at halftime.

• The Saints took less than a minute to go 60-yards down the field before Ben Chesser connected with Jaiden Combs deep down the field before Combs crossed the goal line for the Saints third touchdown of the game.

• The Saints defense came out in force for the first Kentucky Wesleyan drive of the quarter with three straight sacks. Myles Terry had the first one that pushed the Panthers back 9 yards before Tofa Luani pushed them back another 8 yards. Marcus Jackson got the 7 yard sack on third down forcing the Panthers to punt on a 4^th and 33 at their own 4-yard line.
• The Saints started the drive at the Kentucky Wesleyan 32 yard line. Kayleb Wagner started the drive with a 21 yard rush up the middle before having a 11 yard rushing touchdown on the second play of the drive. The Saints went up 28-10 with 9:52 remaining in the game.
• Kentucky Wesleyan scored a passing touchdown with just under two minutes remaining but failed to convert the two-point conversion attempt.

 

• Ben Chesser went 8-15 on pass attempts with 104 yards including one touchdown and a long of 45 yards. On the ground he had 12 carries for a net gain of 61 yards while scoring one touchdown.
• Kamalie Pemberton had 14 carries for 36 yards.
• Kayleb Wagner averaged 8.6 yards per carry on his five rushing attempts as well as scoring one touchdown.
• Griffin Scalf went 3-9 in the air with a passing touchdown.
• Jaiden Combs had five receptions for a total of 69 yards and a touchdown.
• JT Cooper and Numehnne Gwilly each had two receptions and combined for 59 yards and a touchdown.
• Tofa Luani had 10 total tackles, including 9 solo tackles. He had four tackles for lost for 23 yards, he also recorded 3 sacks that pushed the Panthers back a total of 18 yards and he recorded a forced fumble.
• Toto Luani had seven total tackles. Chase Terrell had three pass break ups.
• As a team, the Saints defense recorded 7 sacks that cost Kentucky Wesleyan 49 yards. They also recorded a total of 11 tackles for loss that cost the visitors 59 yards.