Afternoon Box Score: Friday Football

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Nov 28, 2009 6:45PM

Illini Thumped By Cincy
The thing about the Thanksgiving weekend smorgasbord of football is that we lose track of who plays on what day. Case in point: Illinois playing yesterday against Cincinnati being left out of our morning sports round-up. Mea culpa, Illini fans. Though chances are most of you didn't mind as the Illini finished the season on a losing note, falling to #5 Cincinnati by a score of 49-36. The Illini got out to an early 7-0 lead but Cincinnati showed why they're ranked #5, rattling off 28 straight points to take a lead that would never really be in danger. Illinois QB Juice Williams threw for 282 yards/3 TDs adn ran for another 67 yards and scored a touchdown on the ground as Illinois rolled up 476 total yards. But they couldn't overcome the performance by Cincy QB Tony Pike, who threw for 399 yards and six TDs of his own. The Illini finish the season a disappointing (an understatement) 3-8.

Central Michigan Breezes Past Northern Illinois
Despite three touchdowns in the fourth quarter, NIU was in too big a hole to get out of en route to a 45-31 loss to Central Michigan yesterday. At one point down, 38-10, the fourth quarter rally by the Huskies was far too little, too late. Chandler Harnish threw for 202 yards, two TDs and two INTs while Chad Spann struggled to 76 yards and a TD on the ground. Not helping was the NIU defense giving up 512 yards of total offense. The loss also hurts NIU's bowl chances. With only three bowl game slots set aside for MAC teams, NIU is - at 7-5 overall, 5-3 in the conference - is fifth of the five bowl eligible MAC teams.