ROCKFORD, Ill.- Saturday afternoon featured a match-up between the Rockford University football team and the top-ranked team in the NCAA, the Lakeland College Muskies. The Muskies brought some cold Wisconsin wind and pre-game rain with them. Rockford got on the scoreboard first with a huge impact play on defense. But the tough Muskies defense held the Regents down the rest of the way and the Muskie offense eventually pulled away for a 34-7 Lakeland win.
The Regents received the ball to begin the game. A false start on third-and-three stalled their drive and Rockford was forced to punt. The Muskies and the Regents then traded punts on each team's next two possessions. Lakeland's offense started to move the ball with a drive starting at the 7:23 mark and drove to Rockford's 22 yard line. Reginald Haynes (Chicago, Ill./Prosser Career Academy) then picked off a Muskie pass at Rockford's 15 yard line and returned it 85 yards for a touchdown and the first score of the game. It was Haynes team-leading third interception of the season.
Lakeland responded quickly by scoring a touchdown on its next possession. An interception on the Regents next possession at Rockford's 33 yard line set-up a short field for Lakeland, who punched it in just before the end of the first quarter. Gordon Przislicki (Chicago, Ill./St. Laurence) busted through the line on the extra point attempt and blocked it to put the first quarter score at 13-7 in favor of the Muskies.
Rockford's offense struggled to get things going on its next couple of possessions. Eventually, after another Regent turnover and another short field, the Muskies were able to add to their lead with a touchdown at the 5:07 mark. An interception by Joey Jefferson (Clarksdale, Miss./Clarksdale) with just under four minutes left gave the Regents some life. But Rockford was not able to capitalize and Lakeland took advantage to throw for a 67 yard touchdown with just 30 seconds left in the half. Lakeland scored one more touchdown in the fourth quarter and shut-out Rockford the rest of the way to come away with the 34-7 victory.
Despite giving up 34 points, the Rockford defense had an all-around good game. They were stuck defending short fields all day and were on the field a whopping 35 minutes and 29 seconds of the game. They held Lakeland to 114 rushing yards on 40 attempts for a 2.8 average. Tremaine Berry (Ocala, Fla./Vanguard) terrorized the Muskies running backs all day, finishing with eight tackles, with 2.5 of those tackles coming for a loss of five yards. He also led the Regents in rushing with 25 yards on two carries. Both carries were on fake-punts, with the first carry going for a 22 yard gain and a first down.
Also contributing on defense was Cody Casazza (Rockford, Ill./Jefferson), who had one of the best games of his season to-date. He finished with a game-high nine tackles and 1.5 tackles for a loss. Linebackers Seth Swinehart (Rockford, Ill./East) and Kendell Lee (Poplarville, Miss./Poplarville) each finished with eight tackles and they combined for 2.5 tackles for loss. In addition to his pick-six, Haynes finished with four tackles and two pass break-ups. Przislicki had Rockford's lone sack of the game before leaving with a knee injury. In total, Rockford finished with an outstanding 11 tackles for loss for a total of 28 yards. Freshman Joe Breeden (Burlington, Ill./Central) led Rockford on offense with five catches for 74 yards.
Rockford's season continues a week from today at Concordia Wisconsin with a start time at 1:00 p.m. The Regents final home game is on November 1st at 12:00 p.m. Rockford will honor it's 2014 senior class before the game.
