The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
By: Michael Rodeffer, The Quill
The Illini West Chargers football team hosted Knoxville last Friday night in Carthage. Knoxville went away with a 41-22 victory.
Knoxville scored midway through the first quarter on an eleven yard run by Kellen McClay. Extra point kick was good for a 7-0 lead.
Knoxville scored 4 minutes later on an 80 yard run by Payton Hawkins. The 2 point conversion was good for a Knoxville lead of 15-0.
With 56 seconds left Illini West running back Ethan James broke loose for a 40 yard touchdown run. Max Dittmer ran in the extra point conversion to pull Illini West within 7 points at 15-8.
Knoxville scored early in the second quarter on a Garrett Larson 24 yard run. Hunter Mulvey kicked the extra point for a 22-8 Knoxville lead.
The Chargers fought back and IW quarterback Nick Manzo passed to Ethan James for a 7 yard touchdown with just 14 seconds left in the half. James ran the 2 point conversion in and Knoxville held a slim 22-16 lead at half time.
Knoxville put together a drive and scored on a 1 yard run by Garrett Larson midway through the 3rd quarter. Extra point was no good and Knoxville's lead increased to 28-16.
The Knoxville defense stopped the Charger offense and scored early in the 4th quarter on a 3 yard run by Garrett Larson and stretched their lead to 34-16.
The Chargers fought back and scored on a Nick Manzo pass to Gannon Bergmann for 11 yards. Extra point failed and score was 34-22.
Knoxville scored with 2 minutes left in the game to make the final score 41-22.
Knoxville rushed for 425 offensive yards and 61 yards passing for a total of 486 total offensive yards.
Illini West had 359 total offensive yards. Illini West had 148 yards rushing.
Ethan James carried the ball 17 times for 107 yards. Lance Belshaw carried the ball 3 times for 22 yards. Jacob Carpenter carried the ball 2 times for 16 yards and Nick Manzo carried once for 3 yards.
Illini West passed for 211 yards. Quarterback Nick Manzo completed 17 of 29 passes and 2 touchdowns.
Jerick LeMaire caught 4 passes for 84 yards. Gannon Bergmann caught 8 passes for 55 yards. Drake Mudd caught 2 passes for 42 yards. Matt Dittmer caught 2 passes for 23 yards and Ethan James caught 1 pass for 7 yards.
The Chargers defense was led by Tanner Freeman and Shawn Watkins with 5 solo tackles. Jerick LeMaire had 4 solo tackles and Lance Belshaw, Drew Dooley, Max Dittmer, Jacob Carpenter and Ethan James each had 3 solo tackles.
Peyton Brown, Brady Johnson, Ian Bentzinger, Reece Shoup, Thomas Chandler, and Gannon Bergmann also contributed to the Charger defense.
After the game Illini West head football coach Lyle Klein commented, "Our boys played very well against Knoxville. Our offense was very good and bailed out the defense at times. This was the best game we have played all year. Knoxville was a very good team, and will make a run in the playoffs.
We must win our last two to have a chance to make the playoffs. Each game is a playoff game.
Go ahead and throw out the records in our West Hancock game. Old rivalries sometimes can be unpredictable. We need two victories to have a chance to play more games."
The next Illini West game will be Friday night, October 15th in Carthage at 7 p.m. against West Hancock.
Come out and support your local team.