ROCKFORD, Ill. - The Rockford University football team took an impressive 59-6 win on Saturday against the Eureka College Red Devils. Rockford scored on its first drive of the game and kept it going from there, scoring at least a touchdown in each quarter. The defense was sharp as well, holding Eureka to just 6 points and 226 yards of total offense, including just 94 yards in the air, the least amount of yards and points the Regents have allowed all season. The Regents defense also picked up four sacks and forced three interceptions, including a 90-yard pick-six by
Bernard Johnson. Offensively, Rockford put up 526 yards of total offense, including 362 yards in the air and 164 yards on the ground. This win marks the largest margin of victory for Rockford over Eureka in program history.
- Rockford zoomed down the field on its opening drive of the game with an eight-play 59-yard drive that only lasted 2 minutes and 37 seconds, capped off by a 2-yard run from Jaelen Ray on 4th down to put the Regents on the board first.
- Eureka responded with a touchdown drive of its own, with Red Devils quarterback Daniel Parhams finding Jayden Crowder for the 13-yard score, but the extra point was blocked, keeping the Regents in front.
- The score remained unchanged until Rockford's Bernard Johnson was able to force an interception in the end zone to give the Regents the ball back on their own 20.
- On the very first play of the drive, Jaelen Ray found Blake Winters for an 80-yard touchdown strike and after the extra point, the Regents led 14-6.
- The Rockford defense forced back-to-back turnovers on downs and that allowed the RU offense to score on both of those drives, getting a 30-yard field goal from Kaden Finnestad and a 31-yard touchdown pass from Ray to Connor Willard, to make it a 24-6 game.
- Rockford forced another turnover late in the first half, this time by Napoleon Williams as he picked off Eureka quarterback Daniel Parhams and allowed the Regents to take the 24-6 lead into the half.
- The Regents scored on their second drive of the second half, marching down the field 69 yards in 8 plays, with Jack Carey finding the end zone on a 21-yard pass from Jaelen Ray to make it a 31-6 game after the extra point.
- After the RU defense forced another turnover on downs, starting the offense in a terrific starting field position at the Eureka 32, Rockford ran just 3 plays, ending in a 14-yard touchdown pass from Jaelen Ray to Nick James.
- Rockford scored three more times in the fourth quarter, including a 28-yard receiving touchdown by Jack Carey from Jaelen Ray, a 90-yard pick-six by Bernard Johnson and a 13-yard touchdown run by Jack Carey to cap things off.
- The Regents were able to run the rest of the clock out and keep Eureka off the board, allowing Rockford to walk away with the impressive 59-6 win on senior day.
- Jaelen Ray was 22-of-34 with 362 yards passing, also firing 5 passing touchdowns and 1 on the ground for his second 6-touchdown performance of the season.
- Jack Carey rushed the ball 23 times for 159 yards and a touchdown, he also caught 7 passes for 86 yards and 2 touchdowns. Carey leads the NACC with 10 rushing touchdowns, 78 points scored, and 1053 all-purpose yards.
- Blake Winters caught 4 passes for a career-high 134 yards receiving and a touchdown as well.
- Bernard Johnson forced two interceptions, including a 90-yard interception returned for a touchdown.
- Joey Alvarez led the game with 13 tackles, including 2 tackles for loss.
- Jarrett Redmond had 2 sacks and 4 tackles.
- Napoleon Williams forced an interception and recorded 2 tackles.
- Will Havens had 6 tackles, including a tackle for loss and a sack.
- Kaden Finnestad was a perfect 8/8 in extra points and 1/1 in field goals.
