Seiji Wood
Sports Editor
The Idaho State football team held on for a win against Portland State Saturday night, 48-45. The win puts the Bengals at 6-3 overall and in a three-way tied for second in the Big Sky Conference at 5-1.
The win also guarantees Idaho State a winning record during the regular season for the first time since 2014.
“We got a winning season,” said head coach Rob Phenicie in a postgame radio interview. “We’re winners.”
The Bengals got back on track with their offense after being held under 400 yards of total offense the previous week against Montana State. The offense had a total of 518 yards. Most of that came through the air.
Quarterback Tanner Gueller threw for 344 yards with four touchdowns, but more importantly, he didn’t throw any interceptions.
“We said, ‘We have to throw the ball to win the game,’” Phenicie said. “And that’s what (T. Gueller) did. He came out and hit a couple passes early and got in a rhythm.”
The main targets were Michael Dean and Mitch Gueller. Each receiver had two touchdowns with 152 and 144 yards receiving, respectively.
Portland State struggled to keep Dean and M. Gueller in check, as the Bengal wideouts won most of their one-on-ones, until they switched to more of a zone in the second half.
“They have some zone in their package,” Phenicie said. “They don’t do it a whole lot, but they went to a lot more of it in the second half because we were isolating the guys we wanted to isolate.”
The running game had a quieter game compared to previous weeks. T. Gueller led the team with 13 carries for 78 yards and a touchdown giving T. Gueller five total touchdowns in the game.
Running back Ty Flanagan had 45 yards on 12 carries and a fourth quarter touchdown, which extended the lead for ISU. James Madison had 51 yards on nine carries. But Madison didn’t play much in the second half due to a possible injury.
Nothing has been released on his status.
The Bengal defense played a critical part for the ISU victory. The Vikings trailed the whole game but managed to tie it up four times.
Kainoa Fuiava had a strip sack of Davis Alexander on the game’s final play to seal the win.
“Make the right stops at the right times,” Phenicie said.
Portland State gathered 597 yards on 85 plays. The Vikings controlled the ball with a little over 37 minutes in time of possession compared to Idaho State’s 22.
Alexander led the Vikings offense with a season-high 273 passing yards and two touchdowns, plus 63 yards and three touchdowns on 18 carries.
Most of the damage to ISU’s defense came on the ground. Portland State rushed for 316 yards, averaging 6.4 yards per carry.
“You’ve got to stop the run,” Phenicie said. “We can’t let that happen if we’re going to take this thing further.”
Christian Holland led ISU’s defense with 10 tackles. Fuiava had six tackles and two tackles for a loss, and Paea Moala added seven tackles.
“Credit to those guys,” Phenicie said of his defense. “They worked the whole game against them.”
The Bengals lost junior linebacker Kody Graves in the third quarter to an injury. Graves was taken off on a stretcher after twisting his leg awkwardly while tackling Alexander.
Graves led the Bengals in tackles and came into this game second in the Big Sky Conference.
“That’s a big, big emotional loss for our team in terms of leadership,” Phenicie said. “He’s very emotional out there. That guy plays every single snap.”
With Graves out, others will need to step up.
The Bengals will close their season with two more conference games, starting with Cal Poly this Saturday on the road. Ending the season with wins will give the Bengals their best chance to reach the playoffs.
“We’re still on a bigger prize,” Phenicie said. “And we control our own destiny.”
