Bengals Soar Past T-Birds, 56-28

By Jake Arehart, ISU Sports Information

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POCATELLO, Idaho – Justin Arias and Xavier Finney set career marks Saturday as the Idaho State football team triumphed over the visiting Southern Utah Thunderbirds 56-28 on Saturday in Holt Arena. With the victory the Bengals improved to 4-3 overall and 2-1 in Big Sky Conference play.

Idaho State amassed 670 yards of total offense while the defense tallied six sacks, eight tackles for loss and two interceptions.

Arias completed 30 of his 50 pass attempts for 465 yards and four touchdowns, surpassing his previous career high of 441 yards, which he set against Eastern Washington in 2013. Finney surpassed his career mark of 158 yards, set against Chadron State early this year, gaining 165 yards on 25 rushing attempts. Finney amassed 42 of his 165 yards on a touchdown run in the fourth, another career high, and he also had a hat trick for the Bengals, scoring three touchdowns on the ground for the second time this season.

KW Williams led the receiving corps with 10 receptions for 99 yards and two touchdowns, followed by Madison Mangum who had eight receptions for 95 yards and a touchdown. Josh Cook had 91 yards and a touchdown on four catches, and Hagen Graves went for 82 yards on four catches.

Mario Jenkins led an impressive Bengals defense with 14 tackles, and his 1.5 sacks, four tackles for loss, and two interceptions all were career highs.

Cody Sorensen played a major role on the defense, accumulating 13 tackles and exceeding his previous career mark of 11.

Idaho State jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first after a Finney touchdown with 8:14 left on the clock. Southern Utah answered on its first play from scrimmage on the following drive when Ammon Olsen threw a 79-yard touchdown to Chris Robinson.

Idaho State took over in the second scoring on its first four drives, two of which came through the air on a pair of touchdown passes thrown by Arias to Williams, and Mangum. Finney and Daniel McSurdy scored on touchdown runs of one and three yards in the second quarter. ISU led 35-21 at the half.

Southern Utah made it a one possession game at 35-28 in the third through an Olsen passing touchdown with 7:17 left in the quarter.

On the first play of the fourth quarter Arias connected with Williams for a 29-yard touchdown reception giving the Bengals a 42-28 lead and the Bengals never looked back. Arias connected with Cook for a 43-yard touchdown reception and Finney broke loose for a 42-yard touchdown late in the fourth to make the final score 56-28.

Idaho State returns to Big Sky conference play next week when it travels to Northern Colorado on October 25. Kickoff is at 1:30 p.m.

Game Notes
On Field Success
Idaho State is 4-3 for the first time since 2005. That year the Bengals finished 5-6. The Bengals are 2-1 in Big Sky Conference play. The last time that happened was in 2003 when they started 3-1.

Big Play Jenkins
Redshirt freshman Mario Jenkins had 14 tackles, 1.5 sacks, four tackles for loss, two interceptions and one quarterback hurry. It is the first time Jenkins has had two interceptions in a game at any level. Jenkins is a candidate for the Jerry Rice Award, an honor that goes to the Top freshmen in the FCS.

Arias Continues to Climb the Career Record Books
Arias' 30 completions moved him into fourth place for most completions in a career at ISU. He now has 475 and Kevin Yost is in third with 649. Arias remains in fourth for career passing yards with 6,381. Yost is also in third with 6,663 and the four touchdown passes gives him 51 for his career, four away from tying the record Jason Whitmer holds with 55.

Career Highs
Justin Arias had a career-high 465 passing yards while Xavier Finney had a career-high 165 yards rushing. His three rushing touchdowns tied his career that he had vs. Sacramento State earlier in the season. On defense, Cody Sorensen had a career-high 13 tackles. Brandon Golden had a career-high nine tackles while Vai Peko had seven tackles.

ISU In the Endzone
Justin Arias had four touchdowns passes and on the season the Bengal offense has 26 which ranks fifth all-time for most touchdown passes thrown in a season. The school record for most touchdown passes in a season is 35 by the 1981 team. As a team, the Bengals have scored 39 touchdowns, which ranks tied for sixth for most touchdowns in a season.

Finney on the Run
Xavier Finney has tallied 911 rushing yards in seven games. As a sophomore he rushed for 868 yards. The last 1,000 yard rusher for Idaho State was 1,022 by Josh Barnett in 2007. Finney now has 19 career rushing touchdowns, which ranks seventh all-time. Boyd Hall (1959-60) is in sixth with 22. The career mark for rushing touchdown is 34 by Isaac Mitchell (2000-03). Finney has 2,067 yards for his career, which ranks sixth all-time. Nick Whitworth (1997-00) is in fifth place with 2,353 yards.

Single-Game Performances
The 465 yards thrown by Arias was the seventh-best passing performance in ISU history. Vern Harris holds the record with 589 passing yards in 1985. Finney's 165 rushing yards tied for the 21st best rushing performance in ISU history.

Post Game Quotes
Head Coach Mike Kramer
It was really an outstanding game for us. Southern Utah is going through a tough one. We know how hard it is to get your guys to play every week when you are 1-6 and go on the road on a bus. To get them to play hard like they did early is a tribute to their coach, Ed Lamb and their staff. Coach Lamb is an outstanding professional person but  he is a personal friend. I wish him nothing but the best the rest of the year. On the other hand we are pretty good. We are undefeated at home. We said it early in the year that this program will not rise until we are undefeated at home and now we are at this juncture.

We are not out of the woods yet but we are getting there. We are finding our way forward. I am proud of the mental toughness we showed as a football team on both sides of the ball. Our defense did some really nice things in the second half. You have to go back to how well we executed our offense. When Justin plays like that and is accurate with the ball we are good. A tribute goes to the offensive front.

They did a nice job against us in the third quarter but in the fourth quarter our conditioning, mental toughness, our absolute passion for finishing the thing off became evident so here we are.

What an outstanding job by our kicking team all game. Our kickoff coverage was outstanding. Our punt coverage was outstanding. CJ played great and Burtenshaw played great snapping the ball. We are good football team when we play well at home.

We haven't won a road game since Eisenhower was President and we go to Northern Colorado next week. That is a huge monster in front of us.

Offensive Coordinator Don Bailey
Our defense did a great job of getting us the ball back in the second half. I thought they did an outstanding job of getting stops. The game isn't about yards anymore. The game is about stops. You can look at all the yards they want but it is about stops. Holding them to a field goal and they miss the field goal, that is a great stop.

We won the second half 21-7 and we were able to polish it off in the end.


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