Oct. 6, 2007
Final Stats
Pocatello, ID --- In a day where Holt Arena's field was officially dedicated to Babe Caccia, the Bengals won in Caccia-like fashion, rolling for 211 yards on the ground, and getting a near spotless performance from Russel Hill at quarterback as the Bengals defeated Northern Colorado 26-14 on Homecoming at Caccia Field.
The turf was named Caccia field in honor of former ISU coach Babe Caccia, who turned 90 on Wednesday, and still is Idaho State's all-time leader in coaching wins with 79. His 1952 and 1957 football teams were celebrating their 50th and 55th anniversaries at the game.
The Bengals had stellar performances all-around, particularly on offense. Hill, who started the first three games of the season and then served as a back-up to Luke Butler last week before Butler suffered a concussion on the final play, was superb, going 20-for-29 on the day with three touchdowns and no picks for 267 yards. Hill had thrown eight interceptions in the first three games of the season, but none now in the last two.
His primary target was Eddie Thompson, who caught 10 passes for 137 yards and two touchdowns. His first score came with three seconds left in the first quarter on a 36-yard scoring strike. The second came 2:01 into the fourth quarter on a diving one-handed catch in the end zone that made it 20-0 Bengals.
The real story was the work on the ground, as ISU chewed up the clock and yards with their three-headed monster at running back. Josh Barnett had the bulk of the work with 25 carries for 106 yards, his 12th career 100-yard game. Clint Knickrehm had 64 yards on just four carries, and Ken Cornist had 18 yards. All told, the Bengals had 211 yards on the ground.
The Bengals led 20-0 on the strength of one of their top defensive efforts of the year. ISU limited Northern Colorado, who lost their 14th consecutive game, to 291 yards of offense, and nearly half, 147, came on their two fourth quarter scoring drives when the game was effectively over.
The win was the first Big Sky win of John Zamberlin's ISU career, as the Bengals moved to 2-3 on the season, and 1-2 in the league. "Victories are hard-fought and they are hard to come by, so we are going to enjoy it."
"I'm proud of Russ's performance and the offense, you know when they came down and scored we answered back," with Zamberlin adding, "I was kind of harsh on them at halftime, I felt we blew too many opportunities, coming away with no points when we got that turnover early."
Defensively, Ryan Phipps led the way for the Bengals with a team-high 12 tackles, including ISU's only sack of the day. The Bengals secondary, which allowed just 153 yards on a combined 16-of-35 passing, had a season-high seven pass breakups. Demetrius Amos also recovered a first quarter fumble.
The Bengals now hit the road for one week, heading down to Flagstaff, Arizona to take on the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks, who escaped with a 44-43 win at Portland State.
NOTES: Babe Caccia was 9-1 against Northern Colorado as ISU's head coach ... the game was the first of the year that ISU did not commit a turnover ... the game was broadcast on Altitude Sports & Entertainment ... Eddie Thompson now has 46 catches for 519 yards through five games ... Hill's 874 passing yards for the season is already the fifth-most by an ISU freshman, surpassing Shawn Behr, who threw for 743 in 1992 ... Kyle Blum, ISU's third quarterback, directed one series in a predetermined spot to get him some live game action ... Dan Zeidman averaged 46.6 yards per punt .... Northern Colorado used three kickers for their three kickoffs in the game ... UNC quarterback MikeVlahogeorge left the game in the third quarter with an undisclosed injury ... Josh Barnett is 531 yards from the all-time ISU rushing record.
