BOZEMAN, Montana- At the beginning of the 2014 season nobody in the Big Sky Conference expected Idaho State to be in a position to win the conference championship during the third week of November. A week after beating No. 21 Cal Poly at home, the Bengals lost 44-39 to No. 12 Montana State after a rally in the final minute fell short. The Bengals fell to 7-4 and 5-2 in Big Sky Conference play while the Bobcats improved to 8-3 and 6-1 in league.
Idaho State amassed 588 total yards while MSU finished with 568 total yards.
Justin Arias completed 23 passes on 38 attempts for three touchdowns, one interception and 370 yards.
Xavier Finney rushed for 127 yards on 13 carries.
Madison Mangum caught eight passes for 147 yards and two touchdowns.
KW Williams caught eight passes for 135 yards.
Taison Manu tied his career high in tackles with 14 to lead the ISU defense.
Mitch Beckstead had 10 tackles and two interceptions.
Idaho State led 30-23 at halftime. The Bengals turned the ball over on their first two possessions of the third quarter and MSU capitalized to take a 37-30 lead with 26 seconds left in the third quarter.
Zak Johnson kicked his second field goal of the game on a 29-yarder to cut the ISU deficit to 37-33 with 13:06 left in the game. The Bobcats answered with a touchdown four minutes later. Three plays later the Bengals went 68 yards on three plays to score on a
Daniel McSurdy four-yard run with 8:25 left in the fourth.
Later in the fourth quarter the Bengals hope for pulling off the win in Bozeman grew when
Tyler Kuder blocked a 33-yard field goal. ISU drove the ball to the MSU 33-yard line but a last-second pass to
Broc Malcom in the end zone fell short to end the game.
In the first half the Bengals jumped out to a 21-10 lead five minutes into the second quarter. Mangum scored the first of two touchdowns on a 10-yard reception with 12:08 to play in the first. MSU tied the game three minutes later before ISU responded with Mangum catching a 45-yard pass from Arias with 7:03 to play in the quarter.
The Bengals built a 27-16 after a
Hagen Graves 29-yard touchdown with 6:24 left in the first half. The Bobcats added one last first-half touchdown with 2:53 to play.
Idaho State plays its final home game of the 2014 season on Saturday, November 22 at 2:35 p.m. vs. Weber State.
Game Notes-Today's game captains are
Austin Graves,
Jim Bagley,
Keelan McCaffery and
Mitch Beckstead-
Justin Arias' three touchdown passes broke the school record for most passing touchdowns in a season by a Bengal team. The 2014 Bengal team has thrown 36 touchdown passes and the school record is 35 by the 1981 team.
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Zak Johnson's three extra points tied the single-season record for most extra points made in a season. He has made 48 and the record was 48 by Case deBruijn by the 1981 team.
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Mitch Beckstead's two interceptions gives him three for the season. It is the second time in his career he has had two interceptions in a game. He had two in a loss to North Dakota this year. He has six interceptions for his career.
- This was the first loss for ISU when leading at halftime.
Mike Kramer Post Game Quotes"Their offensive line gutted our defensive front seven. The two turnovers became the tail of the tape. We came up a couple of inches short at the end of the game."
"Regardless of the outcome nobody thought we would be here at this point in the season.
"It was great to see us fight back. We didn't have an answer for them defensively. They did a great job. We forced one punt. We turned the ball over in the third quarter. And gave them too many opportunities, and really that was the opportunity that was lost today by us."
"No question. Third quarter was key. They took the opening possession of the third quarter and drove down and scored points. We responded and turned the ball over and gave them the ball right back. So essentially it was a matter of possession, time of possession, possessions that turned into touchdowns and too much Bobcat offense for our defense."
"We couldn't stop counter and power weak to the two-man surface side. … It means they ran the ball against our defense in a spot that we couldn't dial up the defense."
"Not a bit. They didn't run the quarterback as much but power is kind of their deal. Bleskin threw the ball pretty darn well. It didn't impact us a bit. That wasn't the answer. The answer was their offensive line knocked us off the ball."
"I saw a team that had no timeouts left, and I saw great execution. We got down there close. WE made a great call on the last play of the game and unfortunately it was a couple inches short."
"It was to be in any game in November when we're playing for the stakes that were at stake today. So it whether it was Montana State or Monkaot State, it was great to be in this atmosphere and great to be at this point of the season. I'm pretty proud of my guys."
Justin Arias Post Game Quotes"We just turned the ball over. The first two drives we had turnovers. That's going to slow anyone down. You can't turn the ball over. And turnover margin is big, especially in close games like this. That hurt us a lot."
"Yeah, it was cold but we threw fine. I didn't have any problems throwing it and receivers didn't seem to have any problems catching."
"We just want to finish the season strong. We've still got another game. We are playing Weber. Like coach said, we haven't beaten them in a long time. It's a good game to go out on. We'll try to take care of business and not look past anything."
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