Oct. 27, 2007
NORMAL, Ill. -
A 52-yard touchdown pass by Western Illinois quarterback Matt Barr late in the third quarter wrapped up a 10-point quarter for the Leathernecks, as the Illinois State football team trails the 24th-ranked Leathernecks, 17-0, at the end of the third quarter.
With a game-high 13 tackles through the end of the third quarter, senior linebacker Kye Stewart moved into seventh-place on the ISU all-time career tackles list with 352 career tackles. Stewart's double-digit tackling effort was his seventh of the season and the 21st of his career. Senior quarterback Luke Drone is just 10 yards shy of a 100-yard rushing day, as threw for 90 yards on 13 completions through the third quarter.
Western Illinois scored its second touchdown of the game late in the third quarter when Barr found wide receiver Carl Sims deep down the left side of the field for a 52-yard touchdown pass to cap off a four-play, 67-yard scoring drive that took 2:21 off the clock. The Leathernecks secured the comfortable 17-0 lead following a successful PAT by kicker Taylor Rowan. Western Illinois put three points on the board earlier in the quarter when Rowan booted a 53-yard field goal through the uprights to conclude a rare zero-play scoring drive for the Leathernecks.
An inability to convert on third downs doomed ISU throughout the first three quarters of the game, as the Redbirds were 1-for-10 through the end of the third quarter in third-down conversion, after leading the nation in that category coming into the game.
Western Illinois came into Saturday's Gateway Football Conference matchup against Illinois State at Hancock Stadium owning the seventh-best rushing offense in the nation. The Leatherneck offense lived up to its lofty billing, at least in the first quarter, as WIU used a lightning-fast scoring drive in the early minutes of the game to take a 7-0 lead.
The Redbirds started the game at their own 20-yard line after receiving the Western Illinois kickoff for a touchback. A quick three-and-out by ISU, followed by a punt, gave Western Illinois the ball on its own 45-yard line. The Leathernecks took full advantage of the situation, as running back Herb Donaldson took a handoff from quarterback Matt Barr and blew by the Redbird defense for a 55-yard touchdown run, to give WIU a 7-0 lead at the 13:23 mark in the first quarter. The Leathernecks' scoring drive took just 10 seconds off the clock, tying the shortest opponent scoring drive by time and by plays against the Redbirds this season.
Sophomore tailback Geno Blow pushed the Redbird offense deep into Leatherneck territory midway through the second quarter to put ISU into field goal position. With the Redbird field goal team out on the field, and kicker Steven Fetzer lined up for a 50-yard field goal attempt, ISU tried to go for seven points on a fake by holder Preston Earl, but the scoring attempt was not successful, and the `Birds were unable to put any points on the board on the drive.
GoRedbirds.com will provide quarter-by-quarter updates of Saturday's Illinois State versus Western Illinois football game from Hancock Stadium.
