By: The Prairie Fire put up a strong fight on their Homecoming, but IC survived to move to 5-2 on the season.
Box Score
GALESBURG, Ill. – The Illinois College football team won its fourth consecutive game to move to 5-2 (4-1 Midwest Conference) after a 35-28 win on the road over Knox College. The Prairie Fire (1-5, 1-3 MWC) put up more of a fight than expected on their Homecoming game, but the IC defense rose to the occasion on several critical plays to keep the Blueboys in the conference race.
Illinois College got off to a fast start. After allowing a couple first downs but finally getting the Knox offense off the field, the Blueboys drove nine plays and scored on a five-yard
Greg Cross touchdown run to open the scoring in the contest.
The first quarter would end with IC on top, 7-0, but they quickly went to work in the second quarter after
Ryan Torrance recovered a fumble at the Blueboy 35. Illinois College would drive 65 yards in 10 plays with the last five covered by
Jason Barbour to stake the Blueboys to a 14-0 lead.
Knox answered back on its next possession as Matt McCaffrey found paydirt from 14 yards out to cut the Illinois College lead to 14-7. Wasting little time, IC scored on a 47-yard pass and catch from
Blake Matson to
Logan Uyetake to up the advantage to 21-7. With time winding down in the final minute of the first half, McCaffrey completed a three-yard touchdown pass to Patrick Marzolino to make it a 21-14 game at the break.
The Prairie Fire kicked off to start the second half, but after forcing the Illinois College offense off the field, Dalton James took a punt inside his own 10-yard line and brought it back 92 yards for the tying touchdown. The game stayed tied until the middle of the third quarter when Matson connected with
Kyle Obertino on a 28-yard touchdown pass. Knox blocked the extra point however, keeping the game at 27-21.
Late in the third quarter, Knox drove down the field and had a fourth down at the IC one-yard line. The defense held however, with
Matt Graef and
Steve Reyna combining for the tackle to keep the Blueboys out in front.
In the fourth quarter, Illinois College attempted to ice the game on a 20-yard touchdown pass from Matson to
Andy Webb.
Justin Horn took the two-point conversion in to up the lead to 35-21 with just over five minutes left. Knox wasn't done though. Starting their drive on their own 40-yard line, the Prairie Fire needed only five plays to move down the field and score on a six-yard James touchdown run to slice it to a 35-28 game with less than four minutes remaining.
The ensuing on-side kick went out of bounds to give Illinois College possession, but the Blueboys went three-and-out. Given one last chance, Knox picked up one first down, but
Carlos Lemus came up with the interception with less than two minutes to play and the Blueboys kneeled out the clock from there.
Illinois College returns home to England Stadium next weekend, hosting Monmouth College on Oct. 22 at 2 p.m.
