By: Down 22 points in the first half, Illinois College came all the way back to tie the game in the fourth quarter before falling, 45-35.
Box Score
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College football team rallied in a big way to take what was a 22-0 deficit in the first half and turn it into a 35-35 tie in the fourth quarter before Macalester College pulled away late for a 45-35 win in the Midwest Conference opener for each team. The Scots improve to 2-1 (1-0 MWC) on the season while the Blueboys drop to 1-2 (0-1 MWC)
The first 20 or so minutes on Saturday couldn't have gone much better for Macalester or much worse for Illinois College. The Blueboys had only 14 yards of total offense in the first quarter and the Scots led, 9-0. The lead quickly grew to 22-0 following two long touchdown runs from Jacob Jones and Cody Petrich.
An offense that had been stagnant up to that point came to life as
Blake Matson picked up a first down with two straight completions to
Kyle Obertino and then a 69-yard pitch-and-catch to
Logan Uyetake for the first IC touchdown of the day, making it a 22-7 game with 7:33 remaining until halftime. Macalester would tack on a field goal late in the second quarter, but that was answered by a 37-yard completion on fourth down to
Bo Davis for a touchdown to make it 25-14 at the break.
The Scots opened the third quarter with a 40-yard drive that culminated in a field goal to take a 28-14 lead on Illinois College, but the Blueboys responded on their next drive with an eight-play, 69-yard march to slice the deficit to 28-21. Matson completed a 12-yard pass to
Andy Webb on fourth down to keep the drive alive and then connected with
Austin Ellsworth on the next play for his third passing touchdown of the afternoon.
Macalester would extend the lead to 14 again before the end of the third quarter, but Illinois College responded once again to pull within one touchdown. After the passing game got the Blueboys within the Macalester 10-yard line for a 1st & Goal, IC turned to
Dyllan Bailey, who bulled his way in with three straight rushes, the last of which got him across the goal line from one yard out.
After forcing a punt to open the fourth quarter, Illinois College tied the game at 35-35 as Matson completed all six passes in a seven-play, 87-yard drive. Two completions to Uyetake moved the ball to midfield and a 27-yard pass to Obertino put the Blueboys in the red zone. Obertino then had the game-tying catch from five yards out with
Zack DeWitt providing the extra point to knot the score.
With the score tied, Macalester embarked on a long drive that drained more than five minutes off the clock. A sack by Bailey looked like it might push the Scots out of field goal range, but Ben Haltmaier booted a 41-yarder to put Macalester back on top, 38-35, with 5:31 remaining.
Needing a score and with the clock working against them, the Blueboys moved into Macalester territory before Matson uncorked three incompletions and IC was forced to punt. On the ensuing drive, the Scots went deep into the playbook to find a halfback pass that fooled the Illinois College defense and resulted in a 69-yard touchdown pass from Alec Beatty to Garret Eichhorn. With less than three minutes to play, the IC offense couldn't put together much more and the Scots were able to kneel out the clock in the final minute.
Matson ended the day going 31-for-51 for 418 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions. Uyetake was his top target, snaring eight passes for 175 yards and a score. Ellsworth ended with seven catches for 95 yards and a touchdown as well. Matson was the leading rusher for the Blueboys in the game, carrying nine times for 25 yards.
Linebackers
Ryan Torrance and
Matt Graef each ended the game with 12 tackles (seven solo from Torrance and five solo from Graef).
Steve Reyna added nine tackles (four solo) and Bailey ended with a sack and three quarterback hurries.
Illinois College goes on the road next weekend, traveling to Appleton, Wis. for a 11:30 a.m. kick-off against Lawrence University on Sept. 24.
