Blueboys Hold Off Cornell Charge for One-Point Victory

Box Score
MOUNT VERNON, Iowa – The Illinois College football team won its third straight contest on Saturday afternoon, coming away with a 38-37 road win over Cornell College, the first time that IC has ever won against the Rams on the road. The Rams trailed the Blueboys by 21 points late in the third quarter but came back with three touchdowns in the final 16 minutes of play. Going for the tying extra point in the final minute of regulation, Cornell's Kaleb Whiting missed and IC held on. The Blueboys are now 4-2 (3-1 Midwest Conference) on the season, while the Rams slip to 2-4 (1-3 MWC).

The game got off to about as good of a start as Illinois College could have hoped for. After Cornell won the toss and deferred to the second half, IC got the kickoff and drove 80 yards in 10 plays for a 7-0 lead. Daniel Modelski connected with Brendan Finley for 45 yards on the first play from scrimmage to move into Cornell territory and the drive ended with a three-yard touchdown run from Greg Cross. 

The IC defense forced a three-and-out from Cornell, but coughed up the ball on offense, giving the Rams possession at the IC 42 to begin their second drive. An eight-yard Daniel Brown run tied the game up at 7-7, and Cornell then took a lead at the end of the first quarter on a 28-yard field goal from Whiting.

A big return to out near midfield set the Blueboys up in great field position to start the second quarter and they cashed it in with a nine-play, 53-yard drive that resulted in a six-yard touchdown run from Modelski, giving IC a 14-10 advantage. 

Tyree Washington forced a fumble and recovered it on the ensuing kickoff, but Cornell came up with an interception in the end zone to deny the Blueboys from extending the lead. With the Rams taking over on their own 20 after the touchback, the defense stood firm again and forced Cornell off the field in three plays. After a short punt, Modelski completed a 24-yard pass to Kyle Obertino and finished the drive with a 15-yard touchdown pass to Andy Webb to make it 21-10 with less than 10 minutes until halftime.

Penalties plagued Cornell on its next drive and the Rams were forced to punt from inside their own 10. A punt of less than 20 yards set Illinois College up at the Cornell 27-yard line and Zack DeWitt booted a field goal through from 41 yards to up the IC lead to 24-10.

With five minutes left in the first half, Washington again made a huge special teams play, busting through the line to block a Cornell punt. Matt Graef recovered the fumble at the Cornell 14-yard line and Deavon Puck connected with Webb for a 12-yard touchdown pass two plays later to make it 31-10. Cornell would stop the bleeding momentarily with a late touchdown on a 1-yard Brown keeper, but IC took a 31-17 lead to the break.

The Illinois College defense forced Cornell off the field twice to start the third quarter. The second Ram drive was ended by a forced fumble from Ryan Torrance and a recovery from Carlos Lemus. Taking over on their own 39, the Blueboys went 61 yards in eight plays to push the lead back to three touchdowns. Puck hit Austin Ellsworth for 30 yards on the biggest play of the drive and Jason Barbour ran it in from eight yards out after that. 

The Cornell comeback started late in the third after a Barbour fumble was recovered by Cornell in the IC red zone. The Rams needed only two plays to score on a 15-yard touchdown pass from Brown to Riley Bell to make it 38-24 going into the final quarter.

Midway through the fourth quarter, Webb was stripped of the ball on a pass from Puck and Maliek Ketchens scooped it up and went six-yards for the defensive touchdown, cutting Illinois College's lead down to 38-31.

Starting with the ball on their own 36 and 5:45 left on the clock, the Rams embarked on a long, clock-killing drive. Cornell ran 13 out of the 15 plays on the drive, but kept the chains moving and scored on a nine-yard Mickey Hines run with less than a minute to play. Needing simply to make the extra point to force overtime, Cornell was flagged for a false start to move the ball back five yards and Whiting then missed the PAT to keep Illinois College in front.

Forced to attempt an on-side kick, Whiting had it recovered by Alex Ausmus and the Blueboys kneeled out the clock from there.

The Blueboys ended with 397 yards of total offense in the game, 313 of which came through the air. Modelski was 13-of-21 for 198 yards, while Puck was 8-of-15 for 115 yards. Webb snared seven passes for 99 yards and both passing touchdowns. Obertino added 78 yards on four catches. Barbour was the leading rusher in the game for IC with 44 yards on 14 carries.

Graef led the defensive effort for the Blueboys with 14 tackles (10 solo), while Torrance had 11 tackles (eight solo) with a forced fumble and an interception. Steve Reyna added 10 tackles (nine solo) as well.

Illinois College will remain on the road next week with a trip to Galesburg, Ill. to take on Knox College. Kick-off from the Knosher Bowl is slated for 1 p.m. on Oct. 15.