Blueboys Can’t Keep Pace with Rose-Hulman in 51-33 Loss

Box Score

JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – When the Illinois College football team meets the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, the scoreboard operator can expect to stay pretty busy. The Blueboys and Fightin' Engineers put on a display of offensive fireworks for the second year in a row on Saturday night at England Stadium. This time around, Rose-Hulman shrugged off a second quarter comeback from IC and pulled away in the second half to improve to 2-0 with a 51-33 victory. The Blueboys drop to 1-1 on the season with the loss.

It didn't take too long for the first points to go up on the scoreboard. Aftr holding Illinois College on the opening drive of the game, Rose-Hulman took over near midfield and methodically drove down the field. A 10-play, 52-yard drive culminated in a three-yard touchdown run from Aaron Abbott to put the Fightin' Engineers on top, 7-0. It got worse for the Blueboys on the next drive when Brady Huber bobbled the snap on the opening play and RHIT's Kyle Brewer recovered the fumble to put Rose-Hulman at the IC 31-yard line. This time the Blueboys were able to bend but not break, holding the Fightin' Engineers out of the end zone. A 26-yard field goal gave Rose-Hulman a 10-0 lead midway through the first quarter.

A break way finally went Illinois College's way later in the first quarter. Though the Blueboys were forced to punt, Bo Davis boomed a kick to the RHIT 35-yard line and return man Alec Thompson fumbled, leading to a recovery by Andy Webb to set the Blueboys up in Fightin' Engineer territory for the first time. Huber didn't waste any time given a second chance, hitting Logan Uyetake down the sideline for 32 yards and an IC touchdown, slicing the deficit to 10-7.

A long Rose-Hulman drive followed that Uyetake touchdown, but again the Illinois College defense rose to the challenge inside the red zone. The secondary forced consecutive incompletions out of RHIT quarterback Austin Swenson and Craig Larew booted another field goal through to make it a 13-7 contest. 

Following an interception downfield by Rose-Hulman, the Fightin' Engineers tacked on another touchdown before the end of the first quarter. Swenson hit running back Kevin Dufauchard with a swing pass in the right flat and the speedy sophomore weaved his way through the Illinois College defense for 40 yards to increase the advantage to 20-7 after one.

After forcing a three-and-out on the first Rose-Hulman possession of the second quarter, Illinois College embarked on a lengthy drive to get back into the game. A Huber-to-Uyetake connection covered 22 yards and put the Blueboys once again in RHIT territory. Three plays later, IC was facing a fourth down, but Huber found Carlos Lemus on the sideline for 12 yards to keep the drive alive. The final 26 yards came on third-and-long with Austin Ellsworth making an acrobatic catch of a Huber pass over the top of the Fightin' Engineer defense to make it 20-14.

Rose-Hulman was forced into a three-and-out on its next possession and Webb made a second huge special teams play, blocking the Larew punt and recovering the ball at the RHIT 27-yard line. Huber connected with Kyle Obertino to move the Blueboys into the red zone, then Dyllan Bailey plowed his way for 12 yards inside the five-yard line. A bootleg pass from Huber to Adam Ausmus got Illinois College into the end zone again and Uyetake's extra point gave IC its first lead, 21-20.

That lead would prove to be short-lived. Rose-Hulman took the ensuing possession 72 yards in nine plays to retake a 27-21 lead with five minutes to go until halftime. After forcing Illinois College to punt, the Fightin' Engineers found the end zone again in the waning moments of the second quarter to go into the locker room with a 34-21 lead.

Illinois College forced a critical three-and-out to open the third quarter and the offense cashed in immediately. On second down from their own 36, the Blueboys went 64 yards via a Huber bomb to Obertino. The sophomore wideout made a circus catch on the play and then was untouched after beating the fallen Rose-Hulman defender.  The extra point was missed but the Blueboys were back within a touchdown at 34-27.

As was the case most of the night, Rose-Hulman had the answers when it needed them. Swenson again completed a pass to Dufauchard and let the running back do the rest, covering the final 23 yards of a 70-yard drive to put RHIT ahead, 41-27. The Blueboys had to punt on the other end and the Fightin' Engineers went to work on a fatigued Illinois College defense, going 74 yards in 10 plays to increase the lead to 48-27 going into the fourth quarter.

The last gasp for the Blueboys came early on in the fourth quarter. The offense took possession with 11:20 showing on the clock and a Huber scramble down the sideline took IC 25 yards to the Rose-Hulman 47-yard line. On the next play, Huber hit Obertino yet again on a deep ball, this one going for another touchdown and putting six points on the board with only 20 seconds have elapsed off the clock. The extra point caromed off the goalpost however and the Fightin' Engineers maintained a 48-33 lead.

After playing at a high tempo the entire game, Rose-Hulman weaned the clock down the rest of the way. The next drive for RHIT took nearly three minutes off the clock and ended with a field goal that made it 51-33. The Blueboys went backwards on their next possession and the Fightin' Engineers milked almost five minutes before missing a field goal with only 2:27 remaining. One last drive from Illinois College failed to reach the end zone and RHIT ran the rest of the clock out to win.

Huber put up big numbers for a second week running, but he didn't have the same efficiency as his counterpart from Rose-Hulman. Huber ended the game 15-of-35 for 307 yards and five touchdowns, but Swenson was 42-of-57 for 472 yards and five touchdowns. Obertino had a game-high 180 receiving yards on five catches.

On the ground, Huber led the Blueboys with nine carries for 43 yards. Bailey added 32 yards on eight carries.

The Illinois College defense was led by Keenan Jones, who had 10 tackles (eight solo). Tyree Washington added nine tackles (four solo), and Matt Graef, Ryan Torrance and Meeko Reddick all had eight tackles.

Illinois College will have its one and only bye week next weekend. The Blueboys stay at home on Sept. 26 when they play St. Norbert College on Homecoming. Kickoff at England Stadium is slated for 1 p.m.