Box Score The Monmouth College football team jumped out to an early lead and held on for a 37-27 win at Illinois College on Saturday. The Scots are now 2-1 on the season with a 2-0 Midwest Conference record as they head into the bye week.

"It was a hard fought win," said coach Chad Braun. "We are always happy to get a win on the road and head into the bye week with momentum. We have a lot to work on moving forward."

The Scots scored three times in the first quarter with the first score coming from kicker Cody Szelc (Riverview, Florida) on a 26-yard field goal to end the first drive. Quarterback Riley Fetterer (Milan, Illinois) led the Scots down the field again on the second drive with a 34-yard touchdown pass to Nathan Graham (Monticello, Illinois).

With a 9-0 lead the Scots took the back down the field again with a five-play, 40-yard drive. Running back Henderson Francois (Naples, Florida) capped the drive with a four-yard touchdown run for a 16-0 Scots lead.

The next two scores came from the Blueboys and the Scots got the ball back with five minutes left in the half and a 16-10 lead. The Scots covered 42 yards in 3:11 with a seven-play drive as Francois added another touchdown for a 23-10 lead.

"We got off to a fast start and just couldn't put them away," said coach Braun.

Illinois College scored on their next two drives to cut the Monmouth lead to 23-20. The Scots used a 4:30 drive that covered 80 yards in 13 plays to push the lead back to double digits. Fetterer capped the drive with a four-yard touchdown run.

"The offense did a great job of responding every time IC closed the gap," said coach Braun

Francois scored again on the next drive with a 47-yard run to give the Scots a 37-20 lead with 1:38 left in the third quarter. The Blueboys scored early in the fourth quarter and neither team scored the rest of the way as the Scots won 37-27.

"Henderson had another terrific performance today," said coach Braun

MONMOUTH MOMENTS: Francois ran for a career-high 174 yards and three rushing touchdowns…Fetterer completed 13-of-16 passes for 180 yards with one touchdown…Jake Uryasz (Farmington, Illinois) led the Scots with five catches for 86 yards…Five different Scots had at least one reception…Devin Graham (Monticello, Illinois), Drake Dietrich (Chillicothe, Illinois) and Mason Castricone (New Port Richey, Florida) each had interceptions in the game…Tevin Baker (Kewanee, Illinois) had a career-high three sacks…Kaleb Plattenberger (Mount Carroll, Illinois) had three pass breakups…The Scots and the entire Midwest Conference are off next week…The Scots next game is at 1 p.m. on October 2 at Lawrence University.