Blueboys Come Up One Point Short in Season Opener

Box Score
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The 2017 Illinois College football season opened on Saturday night under the England Stadium lights and produced another classic matchup with Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. From the record-setting, triple-overtime barnburner in Terre Haute three years ago to last season's incredible comeback for a one-point IC victory, no matchup between these two seems to disappoint.

The rivalry added another remarkable chapter tonight as the Blueboys somehow converted a hook-and-ladder play for a touchdown on the final play of the game, then chose to go for the two-point conversion that would have given them the win, only to be denied as a Drew Chance pass attempt to Kyle Obertino was batted away at the last possible instant by Rose-Hulman All-American cornerback Alec Thompson. The Fightin' Engineers survived to move to 1-0 after the 33-32 win.

Illinois College put Rose-Hulman on the back foot right away, scoring on three drives in the first quarter and taking a 13-0 lead. After receiving the opening kick-off, Chance found Obertino and Logan Uyetake for two big completions to move the ball immediately into Rose-Hulman territory. Though the drive fizzled in the red zone, Zack DeWitt knocked in a 44-yard field goal to give IC the early lead. 

The defense then stepped up in a big way. A good return gave the Fightin' Engineers solid opening field position, but Michael Garcia stepped in front of a Parker Lappin pass and returned it 24 yards to near midfield. On the first play of the new drive, Chance found Uyetake for 47 yards to take the ball inside the RHIT 5-yard line. A penalty stalled the drive out for IC, but again DeWitt converted on a field goal, this one from 29 yards. 

Late in the first quarter, after a Dan Feld punt pinned Rose-Hulman inside its own 10, Jacob Homann intercepted Lappin for a second time, returning the ball to the RHIT 16-yard line. Chance then found Uyetake for a 9-yard touchdown pass, giving the Blueboys a 13-0 lead after one.

Lappin was intercepted a third time, this one from Steve Reyna in the second quarter, to bring the Rose-Hulman quarterback's day to an end. He was replaced by Andrew Dion and that's when the Fightin' Engineers began to have more success with the ball. Late in the first half, Dion connected with Ray Burtnick for a 19-yard touchdown pass. Though the two-point conversion failed, RHIT had it to within a 13-9 game at the break.

A field goal from Rose-Hulman on the opening drive of the second half and then a three-yard Dion touchdown run midway through the third quarter brought the Fightin' Engineers all the way back to take a 19-13 lead on Illinois College. After all the initial success the Blueboys had had on offense, things appeared to be going in the wrong direction until Chance used his legs to pick up a couple first downs and then hit Uyetake on a 32-yard touchdown pass to put IC back up, 20-19. On Rose-Hulman's first play with the ball back, Vincent Vanhorne notched Illinois College's fourth interception of the day to secure IC's lead going into the final quarter.

The first six combined drives of the fourth quarter came up empty until the Blueboys were able to convert some good field position into a 40-yard DeWitt field goal to take a 23-19 lead. That seemed to wake Rose-Hulman from its slumber, because the Fightin' Engineers immediately went down 72 yards in eight plays for an eight-yard Garret Wight touchdown run to go up, 26-23.

Time was working against Illinois College as the Blueboys took over with 3:18 left in the game. A penalty helped IC move the chains though, and IC then started working the sidelines with the help of Obertino and Mason Farris to get the ball downfield. Though the drive sputtered out at the Rose-Hulman 33-yard line, DeWitt calmly came on the field with less than two minutes remaining and crushed a 50-yard field goal through the uprights to tie the score, giving him the longest field goal in Illinois College program history in the process.

The good feelings in the crowd didn't last long. Rose-Hulman completed a 63-yard touchdown pass to Burtnick on the second play of its drive and the Fightin' Engineers retook a 33-26 advantage with less than one minute to play.

Starting out on its own 35, Illinois College was able to get to the Rose-Hulman 30-yard line with five seconds left before using its final timeout. Some pressure from the edge forced Chance to step up into the pocket and he found Obertino inside the Rose-Hulman 15-yard line as the clock ticked towards zeros. Obertino had barely grasped the ball when he flipped it to Uyetake who was running a pattern bringing him underneath Obertino's route. With the defense out of position, Uyetake took the lateral and snaked his way through a crowd to send the IC faithful into hysterics as he crossed the goal line.

The decision on the Illinois College sideline was immediate; go for two. Rose-Hulman used a timeout to buy its defense a moment to regroup, then sent them back out there for the deciding play. The call for the Blueboys was an out route from Chance to Obertino and the ball was right on the money, but Thompson timed his break perfectly and reached his hand in to knock the pass away at the last possible moment to preserve the Rose-Hulman victory. 

Though the loss hurts, Illinois College will feel good about many facets of its play on Saturday. Chance ended up the night going 32-for-59 for 353 yards and three scores. Of those yards, Uyetake had 10 catches for 164 yards and all three touchdowns, while Obertino had 11 catches for 111 yards. Uyetake's numbers give him more than 2,000 receiving yards in his IC career, good for third all-time with his final season yet in front of him. He also at least momentarily passed Obertino for fourth place all-time in receiving touchdowns with 20 to Obertino's 19. 

For the defense, Ryan Torrance ended with 12 tackles (seven solo) as well as a pass broken up. Josh Brooks and Logan West each had six tackles in the game, including a sack apiece. 

Illinois College heads out on the road next week to face Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. The Blueboys and Storm will get started at 1 p.m. on Sept. 9.