Oct. 17, 2009
Final Stats
Pocatello, ID --- Northern Colorado held Idaho State -11 yards rushing, and sandwiched halftime with a pair of long touchdown marches as the Bears came away with a 30-7 win over Idaho State, ending their 19-game road losing streak and picking up their first ever Big Sky Conference road win. The Bengals, who dropped to 0-7 on the year, will now head to Northern Arizona on Saturday with a 19-game road skid of their own to break.
The game was a defensive struggle from the start, but ISU looked to have the upper hand when they drive from their own 31 to the Northern Colorado 20-yard line, but on ISU's field goal attempt, the snap from Brad Shedd sailed high over holder Kyle Blum, and the Bears recovered and set up shop at the ISU 45, a 27-yard loss in the rushing column.
The Bears turned that into a Michael York 30-yard field goal, and the game stayed at 3-0 until UNC took over at their own 18 with 2:32 left. Going no-huddle, quarterback Bryan Waggener moved the Bears quickly down the field, and on third-and-goal from the seven, he hurdled into the end zone from seven yards out with 19 seconds left to make it 10-0 at the break.
The Bears then got the ball to start the second half, and went 80 yards in 12 plays, with Andre Harris breaking the plane from a yard out, and all of a sudden it was 17-0 UNC.
ISU then got a great punt from Jon Vanderwielen, who was easily their star with a 50.0 yard average and a net of 47.2, as his punt from his own 46-yard line landed at the two and bounced nearly straight up, with the Bengals downing it at the one. The Bears moved it downfield and were forced to punt, but ISU was called for a hold prior to the ball being kicked, giving the Bears a first down. Six plays later Waggener hit Alex Thompson up the sideline from 14 yards out and it was 24-0.
ISU finally got on the board with 1:32 left when Jaron Taylor scored from 11 yards out off of a Russel Hill pass. Hill went 29-for-49 for 208 yards with a touchdown, and he suffered just one interception on the games' final play. Hill was hurt by several drops, including one on a flea-flicker that would have been a huge gain with the score just 3-0.
The bad snap on the field goal hurt ISU's rushing totals as they ended up with 18 rushes for -11 yards, with that one play going for -27. Clint Knickrehm led ISU with 14 yards on eight carries. Jaron Taylor led ISU with seven catches, and Shaquille Senegal had 51 yards on three catches. A.J. Storms led ISU with 14 tackles.
Northern Colorado got a 113-yard effort from Andre Harris as they outgained ISU 435 to 197. Waggener was 24-of-42 for 212 yards passing, hitting Patrick Walker and Alex Thompson nine times each. Michael York connected on all six of his kicks, three field goals and three PATs.
NOTES: Jaron Taylor moved into eighth place of the career receptions list with 134, and he is now 99 yards from becoming the seventh Bengal to amass 2,000 career yards ... Russel Hill moved into second by himself in career completions at ISU, and he also moved into fourth in career attempts, and fifth in career yards ... ISU ended up 2-for-6 on fourth down.
