The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
The Illini West Chargers jumped out to an early lead Saturday over the visiting Momence Redskins, but could not finish the job, as Momence rallied for a 55-28 win. IW jumped on top 14-0, but missed opportunities and turnovers were eventually their undoing on this sunny afternoon. The Chargers dropped their 4th straight game as their overall record for the 2015 campaign fell to 2-5.
A pair of 1st quarter touchdown runs, sandwiched around a recovered onside kick gave the Chargers an early lead and great momentum to start the game. Senior halfback Kyle Tanner and junior halfback Connor Artman scored on 4 and 3 yard sweeps, respectively to put IW on the board. An Artman conversion run was successful after the first score to give the Chargers their 14-0 edge only 7 minutes into the game.
Momence responded with a pair of 2nd quarter TD runs of its own to knot the score at 14-14 with 5:34 left to play in the 1st half. The Chargers appeared to right the ship as they put together a drive down to the Momence 10 yard line. Unfortunately, the Chargers fumbled on the next play and a Redskin defender picked up the ball and raced 87-yards for the go ahead score.
The Chargers never gave up and scored twice in the second half to close the gap, but they would never regain the lead or the momentum in this one. The two second half IW TD's were provided by a 52-yard pass from sophomore QB Kennedy Gooding to junior tight end Jace Norman and a 1 yard sneak by Gooding. But that proved to be too little too late to help the Charger cause on this day.
Offensively, the Chargers picked up 437, with 301 of that on the ground. Tanner picked up 133 yards rushing on 18 attempts, while Artman added 120 yards on an equal number of carries. Fullback Christian Peacock chipped in with 47 yards on 15 carries. Joe Adkisson had 2 carries for 19 yards.
Gooding connected on 7 of his 18 pass attempts for 126 yards. Norman caught two balls for 76 yards, Artman had 4 grabs for 28 yards, and Adkisson had a single catch for 22 yards.
Defensively the Chargers were led by senior Christian Peacock's 11 tackles. Also prominent on the tackle chart were Jordan Patrick with 8 tackles, Dominick Foster with 5 tackles, and Aden Trout with 5 tackles.
Brice Cook had 3 tackles, Connor Artman recorded 3 stops, Russ Ness had 3 tackles, and senior tackle Brandon Stanuch finished with 3 tackles. Also on the tackle chart with at least one tackle were Landon McKeown, Joe Adkisson, Alex McCune, Lucas Potter and Peyton Smith.
The Chargers will return to action this Friday night when they travel to Warsaw to face the West Hancock Titans. That game will kick-off at 7:00 p.m.