PHOTO GALLERY
POCATELLO, Idaho- The Idaho State football team battled No. 16 North Dakota tough before falling 28-21 on Saturday afternoon in Holt Arena.
The Bengal offense was held to 289 yards while the defense held North Dakota's to 379 yards.
ISU quarterback
Tanner Gueller completed 26 passes on 49 attempts for 220 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions.
KW Williams caught eight passes for 62 yards and two touchdowns.
Michael Dean caught three passes for 46 yards, including a 38-yard touchdown. Gueller also carried the ball eight times for 32 yards.
Mario Jenkins led the defense with 12 tackles.
Taison Manu and
Chance Salutregui each had 10.
Hayden Stout finished with seven tackles, one sack, one interception and one tackle for loss.
JonRhyeem Peoples had seven tackles.
The Bengals led 7-0 after the first quarter thanks to an 11-yard touchdown pass from Gueller with 9:38 remaining. The Bengals were able to capitalize on the score thanks to Stout picking off UND quarterback Keaton Studsrud and returning it 27 yards to the North Dakota 15-yard line.
The Fighting Hawks tied the game at seven on a Studsrud one-yard touchdown run with 13:51 left in the second quarter. North Dakota took a 14-7 lead on the ensuing possession when Travis Toivonen caught a 28-yard touchdown pass.
Idaho State would tie the game at 14 with 8:44 remaining in the first half when Gueller found Dean down the middle of the field for a 38-yard touchdown.
The score was tied at 14 at the break but North Dakota jumped out to a 28-14 early in the fourth quarter. ISU was able to score a touchdown with 1:23 left in the game when Williams caught a 17-yard strike from Gueller. ISU was not able to recover the onside kick, allowing North Dakota to earn the win.
Idaho State returns to Holt Arena next Saturday, Oct. 29, at 2:35 p.m. vs. Southern Utah.
Game Notes
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KW Williams eight receptions moved him into sixth place on ISU's career receptions list. He now has 166 and passed
Madison Mangum's 160. Ed Bell is currently in fifth place with 172.
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KW Williams now has 23 career touchdowns and sits in fifth place. Brett Fowler is in fourth with 25.
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KW Williams moved into ninth place for career reception yards. He has 2,144 and passed Luke Austin's 2,108.
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Zak Johnson is 93-99 kicking extra points in his career. The school record for most extra points made in a career is 102 by James Ferrell from 1994-97.
- Idaho State is 2-17 at home vs. ranked teams since beating No. 5 Eastern Washington 34-30 in 2005 and Cal Poly in 2014.
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Tanner Gueller tied his career-high for completions with 26. He also had 26 vs. Sacramento State this year. He also tied his career high for passing attempts with 49. He had 49 vs. Montana in 2015.
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Hagen Graves tied his career-high in receptions with seven. He also had seven vs. Eastern Washington last year. He had 51 receiving yards on Saturday.
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Michael Dean's three receptions was a season-high and he had his first career touchdown reception on a 38-yard strike from Gueller.
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Mario Jenkins had a season-high 12 tackles.
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Chance Salutregui had a season and caree-best 10 tackles.
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JonRhyeem Peoples had a career-best seven tackles while
Anthony Ricks tied his career-high in tackles with six.
Brandon Monroe tied his season-high in tackles with four.
Mike Kramer Post Game Quotes
"It was an entertaining game and an outstanding effort by North Dakota. We said before the game that this football program was playing against a football program whose running backs die harder than anybody else. I think for both running backs for North Dakota, the difference was how hard they died. Our rush defense was a lot better. We got caught a couple times flat footed. Studsrud played outstanding at quarterback. We got pressure on him today which was a good sign. We fought back and gave ourselves a chance at the end of the ball game."
"It was a great effort by our defense. It was a great improvement against a team who knows how to win. When you win as many games as they have won you discover recipe for success and that recipe is how well they play together and play hard all the time."
"Throughout the game I felt like our defense was a little bit of a roller coaster. We bent. We bent. We bent and gave up some points but we fought back and got some stops to give the offense an opportunity in the second half to finally get going."
"We are missing two starting offensive linemen. I am going to say it like a violin player. We are missing two really good players and playing two guys who aren't ready to go. We had too many self-inflicted errors."
"North Dakota is very good on defense. When they know what you are doing they sit on top of you. We have to continue to make plays. I thought we were pretty patient in what we called offensively we just didn't execute the way we needed to against a football team who doesn't give you many chances with the ball."
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