Charleston Southern Buccaneers vs Illinois Fighting Illini Match Player Stats On Sep 15, 2012

SportsDirect Inc. staff
Sep 15, 2012

Illinois 44, Charleston Southern 0: Backup quarterback Reilly O'Toole surpassed his career totals with five touchdown passes and 333 yards as the host Fighting Illini handed the Buccaneers their 15th straight loss.

O'Toole, starting in place of the injured Nathan Scheelhaase for the second straight week, was 26-of-31 - a school-record .839 completion percentage - with an interception. The sophomore was 52-of-84 passing for 331 yards with two touchdowns and five interceptions entering the game.

O'Toole threw a pair of 4-yard touchdown passes to Ryan Lankford in the first quarter and freshman Dami Ayoola scored his first career TD when he broke loose up the middle for 28 yards on a fourth-and-1 run with 2:06 left until halftime as Illinois (2-1) enjoyed a 20-0 lead at intermission.

Charleston Southern (0-3), which has lost 21 of its last 22 games and has been outscored 124-24 this season, finished with 125 total yards, including 30 in the second half. Quarterbacks Briar Van Brunt, Derek Hatcher and Malcolm Dixon combined to complete only 5 of 17 passes for 29 yards.

Freshman linebacker Mason Monheim set up Illinois' first touchdown when he intercepted Hatcher's pass and returned it 20 yards to the Charleston Southern 7. On third-and-goal, O'Toole connected with Lankford to put Illinois on the board 4:32 into the game. Lankford matched his career touchdown total with 3:43 remaining in the opening period.

O'Toole broke the game open with touchdown passes of 24 and 20 yards to Spencer Harris and Jon Davis in the third quarter, and a 23-yard swing pass to Donovonn Young in the fourth.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Scheelhaase (sprained left ankle) was injured during the third quarter of Illinois' 24-7 victory over Western Michigan and missed the Fighting Illini's 45-14 loss at Arizona State. ... Illinois improved to 12-0 against FCS opponents, with an average margin of victory of nearly 29 points. ... Freshman Taylor Zalewski kicked his first career field goal on his first try - a 47-yarder in the third quarter to make it 30-0. ... The last Illinois quarterback to throw five touchdown passes was Juice Williams in a 52-42 loss at Missouri in the 2008 opener.