Indiana Defeats Plucky Lindenwood-Belleville

Indiana Defeats Plucky Lindenwood-Belleville

Indiana University put in a solid performance in defeating Lindenwood-Belleville 41-18 on Saturday, but the host Lynx acquitted themselves quite well against the defending Big Ten champions.

Sep 10, 2017 by Alex Goff
Indiana Defeats Plucky Lindenwood-Belleville
Indiana University put in a solid performance in defeating Lindenwood-Belleville 41-18 on Saturday, but the host Lynx acquitted themselves quite well against the defending Big Ten champions.

Lindenwood-Belleville did not back down throughout the game and continued to attack with aggression. But the Indiana defense held well, and though the Lynx took an early lead, it was from a penalty in front of the posts after a long period of IU defending its line.

In what would be the story of the game, Indiana came right back and powered through some L-B tackles to score a try.

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Indiana's ability to answer score with score, combined with a power running game the Lynx struggled to stop, put IU up 26-5 at halftime.

The half ended with Lindenwood-Belleville knocking on the door, and the Lynx finally pushed the door open early in the second period. After showing more urgency in the red zone, Lindenwood-Belleville scored and then went right back down to score again. Suddenly it was 26-18 and Indiana was in a ball game.

The Hoosiers went back to working the phases and power running to again thunder through for two tries, which, coupled with a penalty goal, put the game away 41-18.

For Lindenwood-Belleville, it was a case of playing well and then giving up chances.

"We had problems giving up possession against the St. Louis Bombers and against Pitt State, and it was a problem this time, too," said Lynx head coach Pat Clifton, who said that the turnovers came in all shapes and sizes and hurt his team's numerous scoring chances. "I haven't seen the film, but I'd wager we had more line breaks than they did. They scored on theirs."

Clifton also lamented his team's penalty count.

"With turnovers and penalties we kind of gifted Indiana their first three tries," he said. "We gave up too many penalties, and we get the same referee, pretty much, in our home games so it's not exactly difficult for us to figure out."