This week’s players of the week in the Gateway Football Conference are RB Sha-Ron Edwards and OL Stafford Davis of Illinois State; DE Matt Mitchell of UNI; and KR Reggie Gray of Western Illinois. Offensive RB Sha-Ron Edwards, Illinois State Sr., 6-0, 201, Uniondale, N.Y., Longwood/Central Connecticut State Edwards nearly posted his second straight 200-yard rushing game as the Redbirds won at Youngstown State, 35-25. [...]

For the first time in Gateway history, four league teams are ranked among the top 11 in a national top-25 poll. Western Illinois stands at No. 2, while Southern Illinois moves up a spot to No. 7, Western Kentucky holds at No. 9, and UNI moves up a notch to No. 11. A battle of two Gateway top-10 schools takes place this week as unbeaten [...]

Tags: Gateway Teams, top teams

Travis Glasford scored five times to help No. 2 Western Illinois to a 54-20 win at Youngstown State on Saturday. Meanwhile, Southern Illinois’ Tom Koutsos scored three times to lift the Salukis to a 6-0 record for the first time since 1983 and became the league’s all-time leading rusher in the process. Elsewhere, UNI edged Indiana State, 22-14, as the Panthers moved to 5-1. Western [...]

Two Gateway games will be on TV airwaves this week. The battle of the nationally ranked Westerns (Western Kentucky and Western Illinois) is a national TV broadcast on CSTV, while SMS visits Youngstown State as part of the Gateway TV package, as well as a national broadcast on TFN (The Football Network). In Macomb, Ill., Carter Blackburn, Glenn Parker, and Chris Miller will call the [...]

This week’s Gateway Players of the Week are QB Russ Michna of Western Illinois; RB Terrance Freeney of UNI; DE Matt Mitchell of UNI; OL Mike Stegeman of Illinois State; and PK Matt Lange of Western Kentucky. Co-Offensive QB Russ Michna, Western Illinois Sr., 6-3, 230, Elk Grove Village (Ill.) Conant Michna threw a school-record five touchdowns in the first half of a 56-0 win [...]

The Gateway Football Conference capped another impressive weekend of I-AA football as the league improved to 20-8 in non-conference play after going 6-1 against non-league foes this week. The Gateway was a perfect 5-0 against the Ohio Valley Conference, improving to 7-0 in the challenge series against the OVC. Illinois State 21, No. 18 Eastern Illinois 14 Eastern Illinois led for three quarters during Saturday’s [...]

Western Illinois University senior linebacker Lee Russell (Blue Grass, Iowa) was part of a Leatherneck defense that held No. 11-ranked LSU at bay for three quarters Saturday, helping him land both the Gateway Football Conference and Sports Network National I-AA Defensive Player of the Week awards.

This week’s Gateway Players of the Week are WR Dwayne Smith of Illinois State, safety Alexis Moreland of Southern Illinois, RS James Norris of Western Illinois, and Fred Freitag of Indiana State. Offensive WR Dwayne Smith, Illinois State 6-3, 194, Sr., Rantoul (Ill.) High Weighed by the death of his grandmother earlier in the week, senior wide receiver Dwayne Smith also carried the anticipation of [...]

Jack Harbaugh, recently retired head football coach at Western Kentucky University, was able to celebrate Thursday a career that culminated with his leading the Hilltoppers to the school’s first-ever NCAA Division I-AA national championship when he was inducted into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame in a ceremony at the Executive West Hotel. Harbaugh joins former Western athletic and coaching greats Nick Denes, E.A. Diddle, [...]

Two Gateway schools are among the nation’s Top Five as Western Illinois (No. 4) and Western Kentucky (No. 5) represent the Gateway Conference in the season-opening Sports Network top-25 poll. Six of the league’s eight members received mention, as Illinois State, UNI, Southern Illinois, and Youngstown State were among several schools receiving votes in this week’s poll. Twenty-three of the poll’s 25 teams will be [...]

Tags: sports