LAKE FOREST, Ill. – The Illinois College football team fell behind at halftime to Lake Forest College by a score of 35-0 and couldn't make up enough ground in the second half, falling to the Foresters by a score of 56-27. The loss sends IC to 3-6 (2-3 Midwest Conference South Division) on the season. The Foresters improve to 6-3 (4-1 MWC South).
With the 10th game of the season in the MWC determined by divisional seeding, the Blueboys earned the No. 4 seed in the South and will face a Nov. 10 trip to Macalester College, the No. 4 seed from the North Division of the conference.
Turnovers played a key part in Illinois College's early deficit. The Blueboys lost a fumble on their opening possession and Lake Forest turned that into a 13-play, 54-yard drive that resulted in a one-yard touchdown run from Andrew Shweky for a 7-0 lead.
Drew Chance was intercepted on the next Illinois College drive and Lake Forest took over on IC's 36-yard line. On a third down play inside the red zone, Jagan Cleary found Nick Edlund for a 12-yard completion to make it 14-0 at the end of the first quarter.
The Foresters were driving when the second quarter got underway and the first play of the quarter resulted in another Cleary-to-Edlund touchdown pass, this time from four yards out. Lake Forest tacked on two more touchdowns in the second quarter, one from Cleary to Ted Crane for a 17-yard touchdown pass and another on a 17-yard completion from Cleary to Chris Edomwande.
Illinois College got on the board in the third quarter with a 14-yard touchdown pass from Chance to
Glen Gibbons Jr. Cleary answered with his sixth touchdown pass of the day to make it 49-7 entering the final quarter of action.
Bryce McKinney hauled in a seven-yard touchdown pass from Chance early in the fourth quarter and Gibbons Jr. took one 68 yards to paydirt on Illinois College's next drive to shrink the gap to 49-21. In the final two minutes, Lake Forest scored one final time as backup quarterback Billy Degnan connected with Zak Burke to make it 56-21. On IC's final drive, the Blueboys converted a little bit of trickery as Gibbons Jr. caught his third touchdown pass of the day, this one from running back
Jason Barbour.
Illinois College outgained Lake Forest in the game, racking up 483 yards of total offense. Chance was 36-for-54 in the game for 356 yards and three touchdowns, though Lake Forest also intercepted him twice. Barbour was IC's leading rusher with 94 yards. Gibbons Jr. snagged an astounding 20 passes, besting the previous school and MWC record of 19 catches in a single game, for 246 yards with three touchdowns.
The Blueboys will now face familiar North Division foe Macalester (5-4, 2-3 MWC North) on Nov. 10. Since Macalester joined the MWC in 2014, IC and the Scots have faced off in four out of five seasons. This will be the first trip to St. Paul, Minn. for the Blueboys, however. Kick-off is scheduled for 1 p.m.
