Defense Forces Six Turnovers in 31-13 Win over Portland State

 
PORTLAND, Ore.- The Idaho State football team guaranteed itself a winning season for the first time since the 2003 season by beating Portland State 31-13 on Saturday evening at Providence Park. The Bengal defense forced six turnovers, five interceptions and one fumble and the offense tallied 430 yards.

Idaho State improved to 6-3 and 4-1 in Big Sky Conference play. Portland State quarterback Kieran McDonagh threw four interceptions and Josh Kraght tallied another pick by the PSU Offense.

Idaho State cornerback Erik Collins had two interceptions. Cody Sorensen, Mitch Beckstead and Vai Peko had the other three picks. Beckstead also had a fumble recovery.

Taison Manu had 14 and Sorensen had 10 tackles, an interception and one pass breakup. Austin Graves had seven tackles, one forced fumble and 1.5 sacks and tackles for loss.

Justin Arias threw for 319 yards (28-for-48), two touchdowns and no interceptions. Madison Mangum caught eight passes for 130 yards and KW Williams caught seven passes for 83 yards and one touchdown. CJ Hatchett caught a touchdown for the second straight game.

Xavier Finney became the ISU single-season all-time leading rusher as he carried the ball 23 times for 88 yards and two touchdowns.

Idaho State tallied 430 yards of total offense and Portland State finished with 424.

The Bengals led 14-0 after the first quarter. Williams caught his ninth touchdown of the season on a six-yard reception from Arias with 4:36 left in the first quarter and the lead was upped to 14-0 with Finney scored on a five-yard run with 58 seconds left in the quarter.

The Vikings answered with a touchdown at the 9:40 mark of the second quarter. Both teams exchanged field goals in the final five minutes of the first half. Zak Johnson connected on a 21-yarder with 4:03 left in the quarter and Jonathan Gonzales hit a 48-yarder with eight seconds left to give the Bengals the 17-10 halftime lead.

The Bengal defense forced a turnover on the Viking opening possession thanks to an interception by Erik Collins in the end zone. ISU then drove 11 plays on 80-yards and CJ Hatchett caught a three-yard touchdown reception from Arias with 9:42 left in the third quarter to up the ISU lead to 24-10. The Vikings tallied a field goal to cut the ISU lead to 24-13 but the Bengal defense continued to force turnovers and the PSU offense was plagued by penalties in the second half.

Midway through the fourth quarter Finney scored his second touchdown of the game on an 18-yard run to put ISU on top 31-13 with 8:10 remaining. 

Beckstead sealed the win with an interception return in the final minutes of the game.

Idaho State returns home to host Cal Poly on Saturday, November 8 in Holt Arena. Kickoff is at 2:30 p.m. Fans can purchase tickets by logging onto isubengals.com or by calling the ISU Ticket Office at Holt Arena at 208-282-FANS.

Mike Kramer Post Game Quotes
We will go back to sometime in early September when I said the defense will ride to the rescue. They had to rescue themselves for a large part of the day because they allowed them to bend them. But they got down and the door was still shut. But you don't score a touchdown until you possess the ball in the end zone. That is a valuable lesson for our own offense and our entire team that the series is not over until the final play of that series. You can still make a positive impact on the series by finishing the play with the ball in your hand. It was a very good job by our defense and our defensive staff. Our defensive staff didn't over coach them.

When the door was shut and they were trying to pound their way through the window we slammed the door on their fingertips.

Teams that don't know how to lose don't lose. What has happened to us is that it has been a long time since Eastern Washington so we don't know how to lose.

Credit Portland State, their defensive down four guys played very well. We didn't block as effectively as we have. We will have a raucous week of practice this week as we prepare for a team that knows a lot more about running the ball then we will ever think of.

We beat a team we should have beat. All things being said we are a better football team. I think we are the best football team in the conference right now because we are playing well in all three phases. Even though we weren't stellar on offense, defense or in the kicking game we went on the road and we won convincingly on the road and that is what good teams, championship teams do.
 
Game Notes: Today's game captains are Austin Graves, Vai Peko, Daniel McSurdy and Nick Albano.
- KW Williams has nine receiving touchdowns and is now in a tie for seventh place for most receiving touchdowns in a season.
- Justin Arias tied the career record for touchdown passes with 55 when he hit CJ Hatchett on a three-yard pass in the third quarter. Jason Whitmer had 55 from 1987-90.
- The last time ISU won two road games in a season was 2003. The last time ISU won two straight road games in a season was in 1995 when it won at Cal Poly and Eastern Washington.
- Xavier Finney became the ISU single-season leader for most rushing yards in a season. He came into the game needing 46 to break the record of 1,192 held by Alfredo Anderson in 1995. He finished with 23 carries for 88 yards and two touchdowns. Finney has 219 carries on the season for 1,235 yards.
- This is the first time the Bengals have won four straight games since the 2002 season when the team finished 8-3 and won the Big Sky championship.
- The Bengal defense has had at least two interceptions in five of the last six games.
- This is the 14th game in Justin Arias' career that he has thrown for 300 yards or more.
- Xavier Finney scored two rushing touchdowns to tie the single-season record for touchdowns in a season with 14. Ken Cornist set the record of 14 in 2005.
- This was the first win at Portland State since 1998.
- The last time ISU forced six turnovers in a game was a 41-34 win over Portland State in 2009.
- This is the first conference road win in November since a win at Portland State in 1996.