CHAMPAIGN, Ill. _ Mistakes continued to haunt Penn State on Friday night, and Illinois tried to capitalize on as many as it could to post the shocker of the young Big Ten football season.
But the Nittany Lions persevered. Miles Sanders rushed for a career-high 200 yards and three touchdowns and Trace McSorley threw three touchdown passes to lift the 10th-ranked Lions to a 63-24 victory over the Fighting Illini at Memorial Stadium in the conference opener for both teams.
Penn State (4-0, 1-0) received all it could handle from the Fighting Illini (2-2, 0-1) for a little over a half. Illinois rallied from a 21-7 second-quarter deficit with 17 straight points, and held a 24-21 lead when wide receiver Trenard Davis hit Ricky Smalling with a 17-yard touchdown pass on the opening possession of the third quarter.
But the Nittany Lions scored touchdowns on their next four possessions. Sanders carried the ball on five straight possessions, with his fifth carry accounting for 48 yards and a touchdown that gave the visitors the lead for good at 28-24.
The Lions scored their next two touchdowns in a 44-second span. First came an 11-play drive that was aided by a personal foul penalty against Illinois. On the Lions' third successful third-down conversion of the drive, McSorley threw a 16-yard scoring pass to a leaping Juwan Johnson.
Illinois quarterback M.J. Rivers threw an interception on the second play of the ensuing drive, a diving pick off a deflection by linebacker Jan Johnson at the Fighting Illini 21. McSorley wasted no time, finding K.J. Hamler in the end zone on the first play to make it 42-24.
Freshman Ricky Slade scored two touchdowns after that. He raced 61 yards for a touchdown for the Lions; third in a five-minute span, and added a 1-yard score.
The Nittany Lions rolled up 591 yards of total offense. McSorley accounted for 252 yards on his own, completing 12 of 19 passes for 160 yards and three scores, and rushing 15 times for a career-high 92 yards.
They had 324 yards of offense in the first half, with Sanders rushing 14 times for 113 yards and McSorley accounting for 201 yards of offense, but led by only 21-17, hurt by two turnovers and a missed field goal. Meanwhile, the Fighting Illini gashed the visitors for 174 rush yards in the opening half and stayed turnover-free.
Illinois, which ended the first half on a 42-yard field goal by Chase McLaughlin, received the second-half kickoff and marched 75 yards with the help of two penalties against Penn State. The more significant foul was a roughing-the-passer call against linebacker Cam Brown on a third-down incompletion.
A pass interference penalty later brought the ball to the 17, from where Davis took a handoff on a reverse before raising up and throwing the TD pass to Smalling.
Penn State scored the first touchdown of the game on a 14-yard run by Sanders, but failed to capitalize on a pair of scoring opportunities in the opening quarter. A fumble by tight end Jonathan Holland at the Illinois 20 after the reception of a pass from McSorley was recovered by safety Michael Marchese.
Later in the period, the Lions moved into field-goal range with the help of a 20-yard completion from McSorley to K.J. Hamler, but freshman Jake Pinegar booted a 44-yard field-goal attempt into the wind low and left of the uprights. The Fighting Illini used the miss as a springboard to a six-play, 74-yard drive that ended with Mike Epstein's 2-yard run.
The Nittany Lions got their offense in gear after Illinois tied the game, going 75 and 66 yards on their next two drives for touchdowns _ a 2-yard run by Sanders and McSorley's 5-yard pass to freshman tight end Pat Freiermuth _ for a 21-7 lead.
After the TD pass, the Fighting Illini closed the half with 10 unanswered points. A 51-yard run by Reggie Corbin highlighted a drive that resulted in Rivers' 6-yard scoring strike to Smalling.
In the final minute of the half, McSorley threw a deep ball to Brandon Polk that was intercepted by safety Delano Ware at the Illinois 44. The Fighting Illini, with 28 seconds and three timeouts, moved the ball to the Penn State 24, and McLaughlin kicked a 42-yard field goal that ended the half with the Lions holding a narrow 21-17 advantage.
