The start of the game was delayed four long hours by Mother's Nature's weather antics but in the end, it was well worth the wait for the Kansas Wesleyan football team.
Caleb Deal threw for 289 yards and five first half touchdown passes and rushed for 68 yards in leading the Coyotes to a 67-17 Kansas Conference victory over Bethel on Saturday night on Gene Bissell Field at JRI Hospitality Stadium in the Graves Family Sports Complex.
Middleton had been perturbed with the passing game's relative ineffectiveness so far this season and spent the week focusing on ways to improve it. Mission accomplished.
"We made a point that we were going to throw the ball, and we did a little bit of that," he said. "We haven't been very good at it, so we wanted to work on it."
Deal, a senior transfer from Northwestern Oklahoma State, was magnificent completing 18 of 24 pass attempts. Two of his touchdown throws went to Wilson while Wilcox, Elam and Brown each had one. Wilcox caught three passes for 103 yards, Wilson three for 80 and Elam eight for 70.
"I teased Caleb, I told him tonight he's just like a wild bronco," Middleton said. "When he gets under control within the system, he's special. But it's a matter getting him to play within that and I think tonight he did a really good job."
The Coyotes also had a good night running the ball. Andrew Brown had a team-best 82 yards rushing on six carries highlighted by a 63-yard touchdown jaunt. Deal had 68 on 12 tries.
Defensively KWU limited Bethel to 26 yards rushing on 37 attempts (0.7 average) and five Coyote defenders combined to sack Thresher quarterbacks six times - Myles Elam and Trindon Moore with 1.5 each.
"People know how we play and are throwing on us," Middleton said. "That's what we're going to get the rest of the year, so we've got to find a way to pressure the quarterback a little bit. I'm proud of the way we got after them tonight."
After lightning bolts hit two JRI Stadium light standards during a wild pregame thunderstorm, Deal came out of the locker room throwing lightning bolts of his own.
He had touchdown passes of 48 yards to Wilcox and 18 yards to Wilson in the first quarter, then 47 yards to Wilson, 23 to Elam and 10 to Brown in the second quarter. KWU also notched a team safety when Myles Elam tackled Bethel's punter in the end zone in the second quarter and led 37-7 at halftime.
The teams didn't pause at intermission, opting to keep playing after the late 9 p.m. start.
Sam Mitchum ran two yards for a touchdown; Brown added his long run, and AJ Woods kicked a 35-yard field goal giving the Coyotes a 53-14 lead after three quarters.
In the fourth quarter Genaro Renya raced 29 yards for a score and Yamnoel Oyola-Bernier grabbed a tipped pass and returned it three yards for a touchdown to cap the scoring.
KWU finished with 542 total yards (324 passing, 218 rushing) while Bethel (0-2) had 294 yards (268 passing, 26 rushing).
The Coyotes play Tabor at 1 p.m. next Saturday in Hillsboro. The Bluejays (1-3) lost to No. 7 Friends 42-14 on Saturday in Wichita and lost to KCAC powers Southwestern and McPherson as well.