Week 1 College Football Roundup: NIU, NW, and Illini All Win

The local Divison 1 college football campaign got off to a fantastic start as all three teams won their games.  The only one that could be considered an upset was Northwestern winning at Boston College.

Northwestern 24  Boston College 17

Northwestern got off to a great start this season with a win at Boston College. What was most impressive about this win is that they accomplished it without starting QB Dan Persa who was held out still recovering from last season's achilles injury.

Both teams matched field goals in the first quarter and the score was tied at three after the first quarter. Boston College would take their only lead of the game when Andre Williams scored on a six yard run. The rest of the game was all Northwestern. Kain Colter tied the game in the second quarter on a three yard run, and Mike Trumpy gave the 'Cats the lead for good on a five yard TD run of his own. Each team would score once more to make the score NW 24 BC 17 and the 'Cats would hold on for the important road win.

Quarterback Kain Colter had a nice game going 17-24 for 197 yards. Colter also had another 71 yards rushing.  Mike Trumpy led the Wildcats on the ground with 85 yards on 15 carries.

Northwestern will face Eastern Illinois at Ryan Field next Saturday.

Illinois 33  Arkansas State 15

The Illini got a week one win for the first time in a long time. This was the first time in several seasons that the Illini didn't face Missouri in the first week of the season.

Jason Ford got the scoring started for the Illini in the first quarter on a 15 yard TD run. Arkansas State would take the lead in the second quarter after a safety and two field goals to go up 8-7. That would be it though for Arkansas State as the Illini offense went on a 26-0 run to secure the victory.

Nathan Scheelhaase led an impressive aerial attack for Illini. Scheelhaase was 16-23 for 267 yards and two touchdowns. Two receivers went over 100 yards each for Illinois. A.J . Jenkins had 11 catches for 148 yards and Darius Millines added another five catches for 119 yards.  Jason Ford led the ground attack with 85 yards rushing.

The Illini will host South Dakota State next Saturday at Memorial Stadium.

Northern Illinois 49  Army 26

Northern Illinois shut down the Army ground game and had no problems in their blowout victory Saturday in Dekalb. NIU and Army each scored early touchdowns but after that it was all NIU. Northern scored the next 42 points before Army added 20 in the fourth quarter as the Huskies went on for a week 1 victory.

Chandler Harnish led the Huskies attack with five touchdowns.

The Huskies will play next Saturday against the Kansas Jayhawks at Kansas.