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The Illini West Chargers hosted the visiting Knoxville Blue Bullets last Friday night, October 4th at Fuzz Burgess Field and secured a pivotal Lincoln land Conference football win. The Chargers came back from an early deficit and posted their 3rd win of the season to get back to .500 at 3 – 3 overall.
After a scoreless 1st quarter, the Blue Bullets got on the board with a rushing touchdown and a successful point after touchdown kick to take an early 7 – 0 advantage with 11:48 left in the 2nd quarter. Undaunted, the Chargers would meet the challenge with a scoring drive of their own.
After receiving the Bullet kick-off and starting at their own 35-yard line, the Chargers marched down to the Knoxville 25-yard line in 10 plays. Faced with a 4th down and needing 5 yards to keep the drive alive, IW’s offense reached deep into their bag of tricks.
Senior wingback Max Kinnamon took a counter hand-off going to the offensive left and then pulled up and set up to pass. Kinnamon then found senior split end Stephen Sparks nearing the goal-line with an aerial strike that Sparks would snare just as he was being hit. Sparks was able to secure the catch and dove into the end zone for the score. The touchdown would cut Knoxville’s advantage to 7 – 6 with 6:48 left in the half.
After a couple of quick possessions by both teams went nowhere, the Charger defense then stepped up to force a quick 3 and out and a Knoxville punting situation. This time the Charger punt return unit fielded the punt and junior Ethan Carlisle took advantage of a couple of timely blocks to return the punt 40 yards to inside the Bullets 5-yard line.
Three plays later, senior Nick Johnson would run the ball into the end zone for another Charger touch down, taking an option pitch around the right side for the go-ahead score. After a penalty on the first conversion attempt, Carlisle would hit Johnson for a successful 13-yard conversion pass to push the Chargers up 14 – 8 with only .08 left in the first half.
The Chargers would build upon that momentum by coming out of the half and taking the kick-off 55 yards in only 5 plays to their 3rd touchdown of the game. Johnson raced the final 41 yards around the right side behind good blocks from senior guard Carson Purdy and junior guard Chase Yelton. Kinnamon would add a successful 2-point conversion run to up the IW lead to 22 – 7 with 10:07 left in the 3rd period.
Knoxville showed it was not yet done by responding with a 68-yard , 8 play drive for their 2nd touchdown. A successful PAT kick would leave the bullets trailing 22 -14 with 5:46 left in the 3rd quarter.
Illini West’s offense would quickly respond to that challenge with a 14 play 62-yard drive in just over 4 minutes. A pair of crucial 3rd down pass completions by Carlisle to Sparks kept the drive going and Carlisle capped the drive with a 14-yard touchdown run. Carlisle connected with senior receiver Tre Neiderman for the successful conversion to push the IW lead to 30 – 14 with 1:01 left in the 3rd quarter.
The Charger defense and special teams would get the final Charger points when the IW defense forced a Knoxville punt deep in their own territory. An errant punt snap by the Bullets would produce a safety for the Chargers and the 2-points pushed the Charger lead to 32 – 14 with 8:53 left in the 4th quarter.
A late Knoxville score with 1:42 left would set the game’s final score at 32 – 20 as the Chargers felt secure enough to just run the clock with their ground game for most of the final quarter.
The Charger offense was limited to only 37 plays as Knoxville controlled the time of possession with their bruising wishbone ground attack. The Chargers would gain 265 total yards, with 189 of that total coming from their improving ground attack. Johnson would lead the way with 181 yards on 16 carries, while Carlisle added 58 yards on 14 rushes.
In addition to Kinnamon’s 25-yard touchdown pass trickery, Carlisle hit on all 6 of his pass attempts for 51 yards. Sparks had 5 catches for 64 yards, while Neiderman had 2 catches for 12 yards.
The Charger defense was spearheaded by the linebacker pair of senior Justin Baxter and Junior Isaiah Knotts. Baxter was involved in a game high tackles (solos and assists combined), while Knotts returned from an injury to post 12 tackles.
The rest of the Charger tackle chart had senior Shawn Watkins with 11 stops, senior Roan Jackson with 8 stops, and Neiderman, Johnson and Sparks with 6 each. Also on the tackle chart were Khile Stonger (4), Jaydyn Combites (2), Brady Blanton (1) and Izik Jones (1).
The Chargers will return to action this Friday night when they host the Bureau Valley Storm at Fuzz Burgess Field. The Storm will come in at 3 – 3 with this game having huge play-off implications for both squads. Kick-off is slated for 7:00 p.m.