Quincy Washington rushed for 210 yards and two touchdowns as Illinois State handed Quincy its second loss of the season, 55-10, in front of a crowd of 8,234 in the Redbirds home opener at Hancock Stadium.
Vito Golson also had a big game for the Birds with 63 yards receiving and two touchdowns on four receptions. Kevin Zouzounis completed seven of his 10 pass attempts for 95 yards and a touchdown.
Illinois State (1-1) wasted no time getting on the scoreboard. On their first play from scrimmage, Washington ran 41 yards for the touchdown to put the Birds up 7-0 with 11:03 left in the first quarter.
Quincy answered with a 38-yard field goal on the ensuing possession by Matt Peters to cut the ISU lead to four, 7-3. However, the Illinois State offense needed only 10 plays and 72 yards to add another score when Vito Golson grabbed his 13th career touchdown pass on an 11-yard pass from Mike Souza.
Washingtons 2-yard run early in the second quarter increased the Redbird lead to 18 at 21-3 capping a drive which saw Washington pass his previous career-high of 92 rushing yards in a game and post his first 100-yard game rushing at Illinois State.
Tristan Davis added his first career touchdown as a Redbird with 6:42 left in the first half on a 3-yard rush, which gave Illinois State the 28-3 lead it took into halftime.
On their first drive of the second half, Kevin Zouzounis connected with Golson on a 37-yard pass for a touchdown to increase the ISU lead to 32. Later in the third quarter, freshman redshirt T.J. Watts scored on a 29-yard run that marked his first career touchdown and his longest career rush to make the score 42-3 heading into the fourth quarter.
With 11:37 remaining in the game, Stephen Carroll kicked a 48-yard field goal. However, Quincys Owen Gilleland returned the ensuing kickoff 93 yards for the Hawks first touchdown of the game making the score 45-10. It was the longest kickoff return in Quincy history.
Carroll later kicked a career-long 53-yard field goal with 9:32 remaining that stands as the longest field goal in Hancock Stadium history and the second longest in Redbird history.
The final score of the game came on a 12-yard touchdown reception by LaMonte Jones from Steve Kolodziej with 3:23 remaining.
