Sept. 8, 2007
Final Stats
Pocatello, ID --- Idaho State University got a solid effort from freshman quarterback Russel Hill, and a huge defensive effort, limiting Southern Oregon to -24 yards rushing and just 119 yards overall as the Bengals picked up a win in head coach John Zamberlin's debut 37-11 at Holt Arena.
The Bengals scored in every quarter, and held Southern Oregon to -18 yards through the 8:57 mark of the second half. The 37-11 win marked the debut of John Zamberlin on the Idaho State sidelines, after 10 years as the head coach of Central Washington.
"I'm happy for the win," said Zamberlin, "but we made some mistakes today, but that's why they have erasers on pencils."
Freshman Russel Hill, who became the first freshman to start a season opener in 10 years, was solid throughout, going 20-for-31 for 241 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Hill, who also had a 15-yard scramble for a first down on third-and-10, hit Eddie Thompson on a 70-yard touchdown strike, which featured several cutbacks by Thompson on his career-long catch. Thompson had a career-day himself, catching nine passes for 101 yards, coming after missing the final half of last season after a torn ACL.
"I feel like I had moments where I really to improve, so I need to hit the film real hard and obviously work to improve them," said quarterback Russel Hill. "I got kind of nervous when I first went out there, but after that first play it all left."
"We really wanted to establish the run game to set up the pass. It was really fun to get out there and see where we were at," added Hill.
Branden Jones put the Bengals on the board first with a 32-yard field goal. The drive was set up by an interception by Anthony Melvin on Southern Oregon's first play of the game. The Bengals, facing a fourth-and-2 at the five yard-line, elected to go for it, and scored a 5-yard touchdown on a run by Ken Cornist, but a holding penalty negated that, and ISU settled for the field goal. The flag was one of 14 on the day for the Bengals as they totaled 150 yards in penalties.
ISU gave away a safety when Joe Nelthorpe's snap was short of punter Dan Zeidman, who fell on the ball in the end zone to make it 3-2. However, on SOU's first play after the safety, Terrance Calloway picked of Bryan Lee-Lauduski and raced 45 yards for his first career touchdown and a 10-2 lead. The Bengals would push that to 20-2 early in the second when after a second Jones field goal, this of 45 yards, Thompson had his mad dash for a 70-yard touchdown.
"I'm happy to see how Eddie came back, after the adversity he had last year." Zamberlin added. "He can do some amazing things after catching the ball...that one touchdown was something special. He just went boop-boop-boop-boop and he was gone. It's hard to try and reign in the boop-boop-boop."
Pocatello product Clint Knickrehm, who had 64 yards rushing, scored early in the third on a 1-yard run to make it 27-2, and it was mostly academic from there. Southern Oregon was able to muster three field goals from Corey O'Neill, but ISU answered with a Ken Cornist touchdown run and a 37-yard field goal by Jones to end the scoring.
"I told the team I thought they played with great effort and they played hard, but obviously we made mistakes that hurt us that kept the other team in the game," said Zamberlin. "But it was good to get those first game jitters out of the way. I'm glad we had this game first before Oregon State."
"We had a lot of penalties, but the ones I really didn't like were the celebration ones. We've worked hard to eradicate that from us and to think of the team, and when you score a touchdown, you hand the ball to the official because you are going to be back there again, so that was frustrating, but overall, and I told the team this, victories come hard, so you have to enjoy the victory, but we have to work and clean up some things, and we have to play smarter, and that's all of us, coaches included."
Idaho State's defense was stellar throughout, not allowing a touchdown. They limited Southern Oregon to -24 yards, the second-best total in school history behind a -26 yard night by Adams State in 1994. ISU also picked off three passes, including two by Terrance Calloway, and the Bengals also picked up five sacks, 12 tackles for loss, and they forced two fumbles. Sterling Mennear led the team with nine tackles, but Geo Simmons was everywhere in the backfield with four tackles, three for loss, two sacks, and a forced fumble.
"I thought the defense played very well, and I thought they were opportunistic. I thought when we had a sudden change they came out well, and any time you throw a shutout as far as touchdowns and give them what, three field goals? That's a great day. They played hard, they played physical. We got caught a couple of times peeking with our eyes, they got a long pass on us, but other than that I was very, very pleased with how we performed on that side of the ball."
The Bengal offense wasn't too shabby either, as Hill and sophomore Luke Butler combined for 267 yards passing, and ISU had 512 yards of total offense. Josh Barnett had his 10th career 100-yard game with 136 yards, moving him into fourth on the all-time rushing list at Idaho State, ahead of his current coach Nick Whitworth. All told, ISU had 245 yards rushing on 40 carries, one of which was a -17 yard team rush on the fumbled snap on a punt that resulted in a safety.
Idaho State now moves clear across the spectrum from NAIA to Division I, as they take on Bowl Series member Oregon State in Corvallis. That game, which will be broadcast live on FSN Northwest, will kick-off at 4:35 pm Mountain time.
NOTES: Dan Zeidman suffered from having to punt from Southern Oregon territory three times, averaging 28.7 yards, but he pinned them inside the 20 all three times ... Branden Jones was 3-for-5 on field goals ... John Schwartz, a fifth-year walk-on senior playing in his first career game, fumbled a fair catch on a kickoff on his second career play ... Eddie Thompson had 153 yards all-purpose ... despite the kickoffs moving back, Zeidman had a pair of touchbacks ... Southern Oregon's leading rusher had seven yards ... defensive lineman Micah Cloward had two of ISU's six pass breakups ... former Bengal Jared Allen, now of the Kansas City Chiefs, saw on the ISU sidelines for the game. Allen's brother Scot is a freshman on the team ... the last time ISU allowed 11 points in a game was in October 21, 1961 in a 12-11 win against Drake ... Idaho State got hit with three celebration penalties in the first half, which did not please coach Zamberlin. "I told them that's enough of that...it's about we, not me. It's about us as a team, and when you do those things you hurt the team. So, I talked to them and said that was about enough of that, so I wasn't really thrilled with it."
