College Football
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Illinois 42, Southern Illinois 34
When: 12:00 PM ET, Saturday, August 31, 2013
Where: Memorial Stadium, Champaign, Illinois
Temperature: 88°
Head Official: Ron Snodgrass
Attendance: 42175

Illinois 42, Southern Illinois 34: Nathan Scheelhaase threw for a career-high 416 yards and two scores, and the host Illini survived a furious second-half rally in the season opener.

Southern Illinois (0-1) trailed 39-17 with 5:30 remaining in the third quarter, but roared back to within 42-34 on Kory Faulkner's third touchdown pass of the game, a 1-yard strike to MyCole Pruitt with 4:14 to go. The Salukis reached the Illinois 3 yard line on their final possession, but Faulkner's fourth-down pass with 44 seconds remaining fell incomplete.

Faulkner completed 25-of-40 passes for 312 yards and three scores as the Salukis racked up 407 yards on Illinois (1-0). It was not enough, though, thanks to Scheelhaase’s big day and two separate 2-yard touchdown runs by Donovonn Young and Aaron Bailey.

Scheelhasse finished 28-for-36, connecting on touchdown passes with Josh Ferguson (53 yards) and Jon Davis (11 yards), both scores coming in the second quarter as the Illini built a 25-7 halftime advantage. Ryan Lankford finished with 115 yards receiving for Illinois, and Ferguson added 103 yards.

Southern Illinois started its rally after Illinois' V’Angelo Bentley returned a kickoff 100 yards to make it 39-17 Illinois. Faulkner threw a 35-yard touchdown pass to John Lantz and, after an Illinois field goal, the Salukis tallied the next 10 points on a Thomas Kinney 41-yard field goal and the touchdown pass to Pruitt to pull within eight points.

GAME NOTEBOOK:
Backup quarterback Reilly O’Toole ran a series for Scheelhaase late in the fourth quarter only to complete a pass for minus 1 yard on second down before getting sacked for a 7-yard loss on third. …Ten Illinois players caught passes, totally 415 yards. … Scheelhaase's 416 yards are the third most by an Illinois quarterback in the last 10 seasons.
Top Game Performances
Rushing
Southern Illinois   Illinois
Mika'il McCall Player Josh Ferguson
7 Attempts 9
24 Yards 49
3.4 Avg Yards 5.4
1 Touchdowns 0
0 Long 0
Receiving
Southern Illinois   Illinois
John Lantz Player Ryan Lankford
4 Receptions 6
99 Yards 115
24.8 Avg Yards 19.2
1 Touchdowns 0
0 Long 0
Team Stats Summary
 
  Yards Scoring Defense
Team Tot Rus Pas TD FG INT Sck FF
Southern Illinois 407 66 341 4 2 1 5.0 1
Illinois 464 49 415 4 2 0 0.0 1