The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
By: Michael Rodeffer, The Quill
The Illini West Chargers football team traveled to VIT to take on the South Fulton football team and came away with a 40-6 win to improved their record to 2-3.
The Chargers racked up 430 yards of total offense while holding South Fulton to just 106 total yards on offense.
The Chargers scored first with 5 minutes left in the first quarter Extra point was no good for a 6-0 lead.
South Fulton put together a drive and scored with just 12 seconds to go in the first quarter. Extra point failed and score was tied at 6-6.
From then on it was all Chargers. The Chargers scored with 1:24 left in the first half on a Nick Manzo pass to Jerick Lemaire for 24 yards and a touchdown.
With just 34 seconds left the Chargers got the ball back and scored on another Nick Manzo pass to Ethan James and a touchdown. Both extra points failed but the Chargers had an 18-6 lead at half.
The Chargers scored one touchdown in the 3rd quarter on a 14 yard run by Ethan James and stretched their lead to 24-6.
Illini West scored 2 more touchdowns in the 4th quarter.
With 11:26 left in the game Ethan James scored on a 12 yard run Quarterback Nick Manzo passed to Gannon Bergman for the 2 point conversion.
With 8:22 left in the game Ethan James broke loose for a 63 yard touchdown run to stretch the lead to 38-6. Illini West scored 2 points on a safety to make the final score of 40-6.
Running back Ethan James had a big night with 178 yards rushing on 20 carries and 4 touchdowns. James also had 3 receptions for 45 yards and 1 touchdown.
Quarterback Nick Manzo completed 11 of 19 passes for 140 yards. Jerick Lemaire had 2 catches for 45 yards. Gannon Bergman had 3 catches for 22 yards. Drake Mudd had 2 catches for 18 yards and Max Dittmer had 1 catch for 10 yards.
Lance Belshaw had 9 rushing attempts for 62 yards. Nick Manzo ran the ball 6 times for 26 yards. Max Dittmer ran the ball once for 15 yards and Jerick Lemaire ran the ball once for 9 yards.
The Illini West defense was very stingy in giving up only 106 total yards. Defense was led by Ethan James and Jacob Carpenter with 5 solo tackles each.
Lance Belshaw, Brady Johnson ad Drew Dooley each had 3 solo tackles. Peyton Brown, Tanner Freeman, and Jerick Lemaire each had 2 solo tackles. Others contributing on defense were Max Dittmer, Ian Bentzinger, Thomas Chandler and Shawn Watkins.
The Illini West Chargers next game will be this Friday, October 8th, and the Chargers will be playing in Carthage against Knoxville at 7 p.m.
In talking to Coach Lyle Klein after the game, he said: "Our guys played some inspired football towards the end of the first half, and kept our foot on the gas for the remainder of the game. I felt it was our best outing by far against a team that was at home on homecoming and sporting a 3-2 record.
"We needed this game and will need at least 2-3 more victories to have a chance to make the playoffs. 6-3 gets you into the playoffs for sure, but 5-4 is not a lock. Hopefully, our guys will continue to progress and get better each week," Coach Klein said.
"Knoxville is a powerhouse in our region. If a team wants to do something in the playoffs, they must compete with Knoxville. Knoxville is big and tough and play with a swagger. They remind me of old Thunder and Blueboy teams. We will need our best game to win this Friday."