Sangamon Sun

The Illinois College football team secured a bowl game appearance after defeating Beloit 38-7 in their regular season finale on Saturday at Strong Stadium in Beloit, Wisconsin.

With this win, Illinois College (IC) finished the regular season with an 8-2 overall record and went 7-2 in Midwest Conference play. The victory placed IC in a three-way tie for second place in the conference. Through tiebreakers, the Blueboys earned a berth in the Lakeside Bowl, which is scheduled to take place next Saturday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Details about their opponent and kick-off time will be announced tomorrow.

IC established an early lead with Tanner Spencer scoring on a one-yard run midway through the first quarter. Toby McTamney extended the lead with a 23-yard field goal by the end of the opening period. After Beloit scored early in the second half, IC responded with four consecutive touchdowns to secure the outcome.

Lleyton Miller contributed two touchdown runs during the third quarter—one from three yards out and another from eighteen yards. In the fourth quarter, Skyler Young added a one-yard rushing touchdown before Kyle Leonard caught a four-yard pass from Cole McKey for the final score.

Illinois College displayed balance on offense, accumulating 264 passing yards and 246 rushing yards for a total of 510 yards compared to Beloit's 169. Young led IC’s ground game with 77 yards on seven carries, followed by Miller’s 74 yards on thirteen attempts and Spencer’s 63 yards on eleven tries.

At quarterback, Tyson Elliott completed sixteen of twenty-six passes for 137 yards while McKey connected on eight of ten passes for 127 yards.

Defensively, five players shared top tackling honors with three tackles each. Blaze Helton, Andrew Edwards, and Drake Stuart each recorded a tackle-for-loss.

The Blueboys have now won twenty-three of their last twenty-seven regular-season conference games and twenty-eight of their past thirty-four games overall.

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