Steve Schaack
ISU Sports Information
The Idaho State football team went toe-to-toe with the No. 8 ranked team in the country but after leading 6-3 at halftime and after the third quarter, Northern Iowa pulled out a 13-6 victory on Saturday at the UNI Dome.
Despite three turnovers by the offense, the Bengal defense held strong throughout the game to put the team in a position to tie the game in the final 2:11.
Northern Iowa took a 13-6 lead with 2:11 left in the game after a 20-yard field goal by Matthew Cook. The Idaho State offense was then unable to score, allowing the Panthers to earn the victory.
Idaho State had 203 yards of total offense, 69 coming on the ground and 134 in the air. Ty Flanagan rushed for 43 yards on 18 carries.
Gunnar Amos threw for 134 yard. He was 13-26 with three interceptions. Mitch Gueller caught four passes for 53 yards.
Adkin Aguirre and Connor Wills each had eight tackles. Oshea Trujillo had seven tackles and one sack and Kody Graves added six tackles.
The Northern Iowa offense was held to 234 yards of total offense. Quarterback Will McElvain was 15-26 for 131 yards.
Idaho State led 3-0 after the first quarter thanks to a career-long 42-yard field goal by Kevin Ryan. The lead was extended to 6-0 after Ryan made a 35-yard field goal with 13:03 left in the first half.
UNI took advantage of Idaho State’s first turnover and kicked a 39-yard field goal with 1:06 left until halftime.
Neither team scored in the third quarter but the Panthers scored 10 points in the fourth quarter to earn the victory.
Idaho State returns to the field Saturday, Sept. 28, for a 3 p.m. contest vs. Portland State in Holt Arena.
Rob Phenicie Post Game Quotes
Hard fought. The defense played extremely well. We held them out of the end zone when we needed to and gave our offense a chance to attempt a clock drive to get down the field to tie the game. We have to have touchdowns. We can’t have field goals. The defense did a great job tonight.
We play hard. We play extremely hard. There is no quit in this bunch. Now we just have to get over the top and win one of these close games to come out on the other side.
Kody Graves
The first half we got three and outs. We were rolling. At the end of the first half we were feeling good. Northern Iowa made some adjustments in the second half to get some longer drives. We played well enough to win. We still left something out there that we could have had.
It is hard to be excited after a loss. It will be a long trip home. We knew we had a good defense coming in. This isn’t surprising to us. Coach Cooper called a great game. I feel like our effort was good but at the end you have to credit Northern Iowa. They made enough adjustments on offense to win the game and they got turnovers. We didn’t get any turnovers, that is partly what we left out there. We could have gotten some turnovers to help out our offense.”
