St. Norbert's Defense Stymies Blueboys on Homecoming

Box Score

JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – After three quarters of dominating defenses on both sides, St. Norbert put together two long touchdowns drives in the fourth quarter to put a damper on Illinois College's Homecoming with a 21-2 defeat of the Blueboys. The last time that IC failed to score any offensive points in a game came in the season finale of the 2009 season in a 49-0 loss to the Green Knights.

It was a frustrating afternoon for Illinois College on the offensive side of the football and one of the best chances all day for the Blueboys came in the first quarter. St. Norbert received to begin the game and the Green Knights drove inside the IC 25-yard line before the Blueboy defense held and forced a field goal attempt. The 42-yard effort from Spenser Thompson-Meyers had the leg, but missed wide right, giving IC the ball on its own 24-yard line.

A mixture of runs and passes from the Blueboys on their first possession had St. Norbert off balance and forced the Green Knights into a timeout after Brady Huber hit Austin Ellsworth downfield for 16 yards and moved the ball into St. Norbert territory at the 38-yard line. Illinois College would eventually get all the way to the SNC 2-yard line before Huber was sacked on consecutive plays and the Blueboys had to settle for a field goal attempt. Lining up from 27 yards out, Logan Uyetake had his kicked blocked by Jacob Finegan and a drive that milked almost 10 minutes off the clock came up empty at the end of the first quarter.

The second quarter followed the same kind of script for both teams. After getting into opposing territory, drives hit the skids as the teams approached the end zone. Late in the quarter, the Green Knights were finally able to capitalize on an Illinois College miscue. After IC took over on its own 12 and drove out to its 41, Huber was intercepted and the return set St. Norbert up at the Illinois College 32-yard line with 3:08 remaining until the half. A 15-yard pass on the first play moved SNC into the red zone and from there Brad Boockmeier took the handoff on five consecutive plays until he was in the end zone with less than a minute remaining. The Green Knights took that 7-0 lead to the locker rooms.

Illinois College received to begin the third quarter and again drove down the field. After Huber to Ellsworth picked up 15 more yards, the Blueboys were set up with a 1st and 10 at the St. Norbert 28. Rolling out of the pocket on the next play, Huber was intercepted inside the 10-yard line and the Green Knights had dodged another bullet.

St. Norbert drove up the field quickly, but stalled after two sacks from Meeko Reddick forced them into a 4th and 30 situation. Any hopes of good field position were dashed by a 60-yard punt from Marcus McGuire that finally came to rest on the Illinois College eight-yard line. Neither team was able to accomplish much offensively on the next three drives, but a Kyle Obertino punt pinned St. Norbert back on its three-yard line late in the quarter. On first down, Reddick and Tyree Washington applied pressure to St. Norbert quarterback Jack Becker and brought him down in the end zone to put IC on the board and cut the deficit to 7-2.

Illinois College got the ball back after the safety and drove to midfield before being forced to punt. That would prove to be as close as the Blueboys would get the rest of the way. Starting a drive on its own 10-yard line, St. Norbert drove 90 yards in seven plays, helped by two 15-yard penalties by Illinois College along the way. Becker went the final 26 yards himself on a quarterback read option play to make it 14-2 with 10:40 remaining. 

The Blueboys were unable to respond and had to punt the ball back to the Green Knights with 8:31 to play. Now content to let the clock roll, St. Norbert was efficient and effective on offense, converting on a third down early in the drive and eventually going 79 yards in 12 plays to score the touchdown that iced the game. Elijah Fort carried it in from one yard out to make it 21-2 with only 2:03 to play.

Forced into desperation mode, Illinois College picked up a pair of first downs to get the ball to midfield before Huber was picked off to end the game.

Huber ended the game 21-of-37 for 196 yards, but with no touchdowns after throwing for 10 in the first two games of the season. Bo Davis was the leading rusher for the Blueboys, picking up 49 yards on 10 carries. Obertino and Uyetake each had five catches, with Obertino gaining 44 yards and Uyetake picking up 40.

Reddick carried the defensive load for Illinois College with 10 tackles (five solo) and two sacks. Michael Hightower added eight tackles (five solo) in the secondary.

The Blueboys (1-2) will go on the road next weekend to play Ripon College on Oct. 3. Kickoff in Wisconsin is scheduled for 1 p.m.