By: The Scots scored seven offensive touchdowns, with each drive taking less than three minutes.
Box Score
MONMOUTH, Ill. – The Illinois College football team came into Saturday having won last week's contest in less-than-ideal weather conditions, but Monmouth College made sure that IC wouldn't make it two in a row. The Fighting Scots waited out two weather delays to pull away in the second quarter and top the Blueboys, 59-14. The game was called with 3:31 remaining in the fourth quarter after a third weather delay. Monmouth is now 5-1 (2-0 Midwest Conference South Division) on the season, while the Blueboys fall to 2-4 (1-1 MWC South).
Illinois College came up empty on its opening possession, but
Dan Feld sent a booming punt down the field with the return putting Monmouth on its own 22-yard line. On the fourth play from scrimmage for the Scots, Deandre Wright fumbled and the recovery was made by
Josh Brooks to set IC up inside Monmouth territory. The opportunity for an early score was negated when
Drew Chance was picked off on the second play of the ensuing Blueboy drive.
Monmouth began its second drive from its own 30 and picked up three straight first downs on three plays to move inside the Illinois College red zone. Hayden Nelson took it in from 11 yards out on the fourth play of the drive to make it 7-0. On the next Monmouth drive, Wright ran the ball on four straight plays before Nelson connected with Austin Hite for a 10-yard touchdown pass for a 14-0 lead.
Joey Biel kicked the ball out of bounds on the kickoff and gave Illinois College possession on its own 35. The Blueboys wouldn't need the ball for long.
Greg Cross took a handoff and went 65 yards on the first IC play of the drive to slice the deficit in half at the end of the first quarter.
The first weather delay of the game came before the second quarter began. After a wait of nearly 50 minutes, play resumed long enough for Nelson to complete a 40-yard touchdown pass to Jacolby Maxwell, giving Monmouth a 21-7 edge. After the extra point, there was another lightning delay of more than an hour.
Once action got underway again, Monmouth tacked on two more touchdowns and a field goal to take a 38-7 lead into an abbreviated halftime. The third quarter saw the Scots score two more touchdowns and then add one more in the fourth quarter to go up, 59-7.
Illinois College would score the final touchdown of the game. After a 22-yard return from Cross, the senior carried the ball on three straight plays, picking up 25 yards.
Jason Barbour then ran 45 yards inside the Monmouth 10-yard line. On a third down,
Blake Matson ran the ball across the line from six yards out to make it 59-14. Minutes later, play was stopped a third and final time due to a lightning strike. With less than four minutes remaining, the decision was made to stop play there.
Cross was the leading rusher for the Blueboys with 86 yards on six carries. Barbour added 62 yards on nine carries. Chance was 14-of-25 through the air for 80 yards, but he was picked off four times by the Monmouth defense.
Kyle Obertino had four catches for 33 yards and
Logan Uyetake had four catches for 29 yards.
JD Roesch and
Ryan Torrance each had 10 tackles in the game for the IC defense.
Illinois College returns home to England Stadium on Oct. 21, facing Knox College under the lights at 6 p.m.
