SIU falls in final seconds at Western Illinois, 37-36

Saturday, October 3

Macomb, Ill.

3:00 PM

Southern Illinois University

1-3 , 0-1

Western Illinois

2-2 , 1-0

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Southern Illinois

Western Illinois

10/03/2015 | 12:00:00 | Football

Box Score Stats

Oct. 3, 2015

By John Lock
SIUSalukis.com

Final Stats | Photo Gallery

MACOMB, Ill. - The Southern Illinois football team fell in the final seconds for the third time this year. Western Illinois hit a field goal with two seconds remaining to beat the Salukis, 37-36. SIU (1-3, 0-1 MVFC) has three losses this season by a combined five points.

The lead changed hands seven times in a wild, back-and-forth game. Both teams scored defensive touchdowns, and both teams put up more than 400 yards of total offense. But Western Illinois (2-2, 1-0 MVFC) had the ball last and took advantage of a huge 44-yard pass to Lance Lenoir that set up the game-winning, 20-yard field goal by Nathan Knuffman.

"You can't yell at anybody," head coach Dale Lennon said after the loss. "The effort was there. We gave ourselves chances. We gave ourselves opportunities. The thing we did wrong was we didn't take advantage of those opportunities. We made mistakes. We left points on the field. All the things you can't do to win ballgames, we did, but we still had a chance to win it at the end."

Both teams made big plays and costly mistakes. Brandon Williams blocked a punt, recovered it and ran it in for a special teams touchdown. Kenny James recorded SIU's first interception of the year and ran it back 70 yards for a touchdown. But SIU missed two field goals, had two turnovers and went 3-and-out late in the fourth quarter with a chance to run out the clock.

"Every side of the ball gave us a chance to win the ballgame," Lennon said. "We just don't have that consistent game to play at a high level straight through."

Western Illinois scored first and led 14-6 before SIU scored a touchdown. After the defense came up with a stop, Brandon Williams blocked a field goal, recovered it and ran it in for a touchdown to give SIU a 20-14 lead. Southern had a chance to extend the lead before halftime but missed a 24-yard field goal as time expired in the first half.

WIU scored on its first drive of the second half. SIU turned it over, and Western scored on the first play after the interception to take a 28-20 lead. Cameron Walter burst through the middle for a 25-yard touchdown to pull SIU within one, and James' pick-six early in the fourth quarter gave Southern its second lead of the game.

Southern Illinois got the ball back with the lead, but the Leathernecks forced a fumble and ran it in from 21 yards out to retake the lead. Austin Johnson hit a 32-yard field goal to give SIU a 36-34 lead with five minutes left. The teams traded punts before WIU went 66 yards in nine plays to set up the winning score.

The loss was the latest in a series of heartbreakers for SIU. In the season-opener, Southern went for the 2-point conversion with 18 seconds left at Indiana, but came up short in a 48-47 loss. The next week, Southeast Missouri used a last-second field goal to beat SIU 27-24.

"There are times when we look very good, very confident," Lennon said. "Then, we have those lapses."

The Salukis lost to Western Illinois for just the second time since 2002, with both losses coming in Macomb. SIU returns to Carbondale next weekend for a 6 p.m. game against Missouri State in Saluki Stadium.