JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College football team had the big-play ability of
Glen Gibbons Jr. on its side on Saturday afternoon, but it wasn't enough for the Blueboys against visiting Nebraska Wesleyan University. The Prairie Wolves scored a late touchdown in the first half to add to its lead, then pulled away in the second half for a 31-12 victory. The loss drops IC to 0-2 on the season.
Each team had two possessions in the first quarter but were forced to punt, leaving the score at 0-0 entering the second quarter of play. The game jumped into action at the beginning of the second quarter when
Jason Barbour was stuffed on a fourth down play near midfield, giving Nebraska Wesleyan the ball on its own 47. The Prairie Wolves drove the 53 yards in eight plays, the last eight yards of which came on a nice catch by Derrick Curtis on an over-the-shoulder pass from Jonathan Curti.
Later in the quarter, IC again drove into Nebraska Wesleyan territory but turned the ball over on downs when Barbour was tackled behind the line of scrimmage on a fourth down play. The Prairie Wolves used the turnover to their advantage again, cashing in a 39-yard field goal from Jacob Romsa to take a 10-0 lead with less than three minutes to play in the first half.
Illinois College answered quickly after starting the next possession on its own 31-yard line. A screen pass out wide to Gibbons Jr. ended up going for 69 yards and a touchdown as the sophomore eluded tacklers and blazed down the sideline. The two-point conversion attempt was no good, leaving the score at 10-6.
Nebraska Wesleyan took over with less than two minutes to play and soon had to convert a third-and-long. However, after calling a timeout, the Prairie Wolves were able to complete a 25-yard pass and then scored on the next play as a pass to running back Shaka Taylor went for 21 yards. Following the extra point, NWU took a 17-6 lead into the break.
The best chance Illinois College had to get back into the contest came at the tail end of the third quarter as the Blueboys drove 73 yards, only to get stopped at the Nebraska Wesleyan 1-yard line on a fourth down run from
Drew Chance. Instead of cutting it to a one-possession game, the Prairie Wolves took over on downs and proceeded to drive 99 yards in 16 plays, milking nearly eight minutes off the clock as the game turned from the third quarter into the fourth quarter. Following a fourth-down conversion from Taylor in the red zone, Curti completed a wide-open pass to Caleb Conway to increase NWU's lead to 24-6.
Illinois College had to move quickly and was able to push the ball downfield with a 68-yard drive that took less than two minutes off the clock. The Blueboys were helped by two penalties from the Nebraska Wesleyan secondary along the way to pick up fresh sets of downs. The drive concluded with a five-yard completion from Chance to Gibbons Jr. to make it 24-12. Again, the Blueboys went for two and were denied.
The final nail in the coffin came as Nebraska Wesleyan took possession with less than eight minutes to go and completed a 64-yard pass over the top of the IC defense on a third down. The Prairie Wolves scored two plays later to push the game out of reach.
Chance ended the day 24-of-32 for 295 yards with two scores. Gibbons Jr. had eight catches for 135 yards and
Allen Smith added on six catches for 80 yards. Chance led the IC rushing attack with 16 carries for 27 yards.
The Blueboys were led on the defensive side of the ball by
Carter Hilley, who ended with 10 tackles and an interception.
Tanner Stockton had eight tackles and
Matt Graef tacked on seven more.
Next week is Illinois College's bye week. The Blueboys return to the field on Sept. 22, going on the road to face the University of Chicago in a 1 p.m. kick-off.
