GBFL Fighting Illini Get First Win of the Season.
by Coach Moss
Volunteer Coach of the GBFL

Greenwood, Old City Park - The Greenwood Fighting Illini got their first win under the lights of Old City Park. The Illini opened up the game with a 65 yard touchdown sprint from Garrett Howell (PAT attempt failed).
Iowa opened up their first drive with two plays that got them down to the 7 yard line. The Illini defense stepped up to the challenge and held them out of the end zone. The Illini capitalized on this momentum by scoring on another 65 yard touchdown run, this time by Nathan Line (PAT good by Hunter Moss). This would be the last time the Illini would see the end zone on this night as the Hawkeyes stepped up and shut the Illini down by using ball control and a timely turnover. The Hawkeyes did get on the board with less than a minute to go in the game.
" The offense did a great job on making plays at the start of the game. We need to learn as a team to perform at the end of the game like we do at the beginning of the game. The D needs to learn to tackle better as we missed way too many tackles." Coach Moss stated. "With all that said, it is great to get that win under your belt. It was also great to get some kids in on D that hasn�t played yet."

GBFL Fighting Illini Lose Big.
by Coach Moss
Volunteer Coach of the GBFL

Greenwood, Old City Park - The Greenwood Fighting Illini were held out of the end zone for the first time this year. The offense struggled to get anything going all day as the Hoosier D shut the Illini down.
In a statement from Coach Moss after the game;
"Today was one of those days where you realize that you can only teach the game. You cannot play the game for the kids. . I understand that we (as a staff) failed to fire the kids up and make the correct adjustments. We have two weeks before our next opponent. We will be going back to the fundamentals of running, blocking and tackling. With all of that said there was a few positives in the game. Flea (Nathan Line) played a great game on D ending the game with 9 tackles and allot of great tackles at the line. Saturday made a great play at defensive end giving him the play of the game."
"One more thing that I need to let my parents know, is that you guys are correct. Support the kids, even in a loss. The parent tunnel would of made their days a little brighter. The kids did come out and play the game, they deserve a little more than "We didn't do very well"."

GBFL Fighting Illini Have Biggest Offensive day of Their Year.
by Coach Moss
Volunteer Coach of the GBFL

Greenwood, Old City Park - The Greenwood Fighting Illini had their biggest offensive day of the year. They scored once on the ground (Line) and once via pass (Moss to Line). Despite the Illini's big offensive day, The Illini were no macth to the offensive output that Purdue put up.
"Purdue has some speed that we could not match. They have some great athletes. We were without two of our players due to injuries or illness. That really hurt our game plan going into the game. At the end, I am still proud of the boys stepping up and filling those spots. We have another bye week and then we get a chance to play Notre Dame again two weeks from today. These bye weeks are killing me, especially knowing that after this bye week we will be having 5 games in a little over two weeks. That will be a tough run on a bunch of 1st and 2nd graders." From a statement relased from Coach Moss after the game.

GBFL Fighting Illini's "D" Gets a Shut Out.
by Coach Moss
Volunteer Coach of the GBFL

Greenwood, Old City Park - The Greenwood Fighting Illini defense got their first shut out of the year. The Illini shut out the Fighting Irish 6-0 in a tight faught contest. The Illini were without starting center, Shane "Saturday" Paswater, and were forced to go with untested Josh "Ninja Turtle" Harsin. Harsin did a good job in Paswater's absence. Only once did the QB-Center exchange have an issue.
The Illini finished the game with 149 total yards of offense while they held the Irish to 85 total yards. The Illini defense steped up in the third and fourth quarter after the Irish made it into the redzone. The Irish got first and 10 on the Illini 16. The defense steped up holding the Irish to 0 yards in 4 plays to get the Illini offense the ball. The Irish never saw the ball again as the Illini mounted a 9 play drive that ended with the game clock reaching 0:00 with the Illini on the Irish 3 yard line.
Coach Moss stated after the game, "These are the type of games you need. The boys did well today. We had our starting center out and our left tackle was playing sick. The boys came out and performed their job well having two drives of 9 plays (with one that was still going as the game ended). G-Money and Flea ran hard. This hard running set up Smoke's first touchdown of the year. I will tell you that I was scared as we had this team down before. We had a one score lead on them in the first game and they scored on the virtual last play of the game.That worried me again. That is why I am proud the boys went into that last drive and made plays to keep the ball not allowing the Irish the chance to repeat the Game 1 heroics. During the last drive we did have two bad plays as one was missed assignments on the o-line that lead to a 4 yard loss and a false start on the next play setting us up for a 2nd and 22 as we are trying to ice a very close game away.

GBFL Fighting Illini Loose a Close Game.
by Coach Moss
Volunteer Coach of the GBFL

Greenwood, Old City Park - The Greenwood Fighting Illini set a new 2008 team record for total offensive yards rushing for over 190 yards. The Illini gave up a game winning drive 7 plays after they scored the go ahead TD. Smoke ran a reverse in for a TD. The extra point failed when G-Money fell over the goalline but was ruled down just centimeters before the goal line.

"At the end of the day, the kids played good enough to win. We had breakdowns all the way around. We had 6 penalties for 25 yards. We have to do a better job preparing our team for different situations that may arise in the game. We will just practice hard to get ready for IU on Saturday."

GBFL Fighting Illini Get Shutout.
by Coach Moss
Volunteer Coach of the GBFL

Greenwood, Old City Park - The Greenwood Fighting Illini were held scoreless in Saturdays game.

From Coach Moss, "I felt the score was no indication of how our boys played today. I felt they gave 100% effort all day. When we got down, they did not give up. We had outstanding individual efforts throughout the game on every play from different kids. The boys really came together as a team during todays game. I pray that this effort continues and we take this negative and convert it into a string of victories in the upcoming games."

GBFL Fighting Illini Win a "Nail-Biter".
by Coach Moss
Volunteer Coach of the GBFL

Greenwood, Old City Park - The Greenwood Fighting Illini came through with a huge win on Wednesday night on the last play of the game.
The first play of the game set the tone for the Illini as they opened it up with a 65 yard scoring run from "T-Rex" Moss on a QB keeper to the left side of the field (extra point good "G-Money" Howell). The Wolverines answered by driving down in 6 plays and scored a TD on a 2 yard run (extra point good).
The game then hinged on great defense from both teams and poor ball handling (9 total fumbles for the game, both teams). The 4th quarter was intense from the get go. With the game tied at 7-7, the Illini had the ball at the start of the quarter. It was 3rd and 15 as the QB for the Illini scrambled for 8 yards to bring up a 4th and 7. The next play yeilded a false start on the Illin i that made it 4th and 12. The QB rolled out to his right and almost hit "Flea" Line in stride for what would of been the go ahead score. The ball bounced off his hand to end the drive. The Wolverines took over on downs from their 35 yard line. The Illini D steped up to the challange by holding the Wolverines to a 4 and out series. The Illini then started their last drive from the Illini 35 yard line with less than two minutes to go and only one timeout in the Illini pocket. The drive started with an end a round to Smoke who gained only a yard off some hard running. The tackle was made in-bounds thus making the Illini use their last time out. The first play after the timeout was a reverse to "Flea" who gained 35 yards plus 5 from a facemask called against the Wolverines. This penalty allowed the Illini to set up for a spike to kill the clock. This allowed one last play for the Illini to try to avoid overtime. The Illini took advantage of this last play by scoring on a 34 yard scammper from "Flea" that was set up with a great blocking by the offensive line and his fullback, G-Money. This score as time expired lifted the Illini to a 13 to 7 victory.

Coach Moss after the game, "This was a great game to be a part of. Both teams played hard and showed a lot of great effort. I was proud of our boys for a number of reasons. The most important reason was that they stayed fired up the entire game. There was no let down as we have seen in previous games. Our running backs ran hard and our defense played great. The defense gave up 52 yards and a score in the first half. In the second half they only allowed 19 total yards. That is taking control of a game. It's also good to see the boys walk off the field with those huge smiles on thier face. All I have to say is wow. That last drive just showed that the boys can pull it out."

GBFL Fighting Illini Win Back to Back Games.
by Coach Moss
Volunteer Coach of the GBFL

GBFL Fighting Illini Accept a Bid to Play in the Inaugural Dick's Sporting Good Bowl.
by Coach Moss
Volunteer Coach of the GBFL

Greenwood, Old City Park - The Greenwood Fighting Illini (4-5) have been invited to the first ever Dick's Sporting Goods Bowl. They are matched against the Fighting Irish (5-4). The two split the regular season series 1 and 1, with the Irish winning the first game in the series and the Illini winning the second game of the series.
"I am proud of the boys fighting hard all year and putting us in a chance to win this bowl game. It was the hard work of the players that put us here in a position to face a great Irish team. We will be the visitors, but will provide plenty of orange shirts in the stands." from a statement issued by Coach Moss after Wed practice.