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POCATELLO, Idaho- The Idaho State football team beat Sacramento State 42-34 on Saturday afternoon in Holt Arena on Homecoming. The Bengals improved to 2-2 and 1-0 in Big Sky play while Sacramento State dropped to 0-4 and 0-1 in league.
The story of Saturday's game was big plays by the offense and defense. The Bengal offense had four touchdowns of 20 yards or more and the defense forced two interceptions, one which was returned for a touchdown by
Nikko Taylor.
The leader the big plays on offense was freshman running back
Michael Dean. Dean carried the ball four times 154 yards and two touchdowns. His first touchdown was a 62-yard run that gave the Bengals a 21-0 lead with 7:47 to play in the first half.
Late in the third quarter Dean scored on a 91-yard run with 31 seconds left to up the ISU lead to 35-17.
Tight end
Josh Cook had a career-high 118 receiving yards on seven receptions. This was also the first time in his career he has scored two touchdowns in a game. Cook had touchdowns receptions of 21 in the first quarter and 68 with six minutes left in the third.
Idaho State's offense did not turn the ball over and tallied 466 yards of total offense. The Bengals had 196 on the ground.
Jakori Ford carried the ball 22 times for 52 yards and one touchdown. His touchdown was a one-yard run in the second quarter that put ISU on top 14-0.
Tanner Gueller was 26-34 for 270 yards and two touchdowns. Following Cook's career day,
Hagen Graves caught six balls for 60 yards and Ford caught five passes for 35 yards.
The Sacramento State offense had 538 yards of offense.
Hayden Stout tied his career-high in tackles with 15 and
Mario Jenkins had 15 tackles.
Idaho State never trailed in the game but the Hornets cut their deficit to four points at 21-17 in the third quarter. Sacramento State got no closer.
Idaho State plays at Portland State on Saturday, Oct. 1. Kickoff is at 3:30 mountain time.
Mike Kramer Post-Game Quotes
"What a great effort on homecoming in front of a really nice crowd, a really active crowd. I can't say enough about what Idaho State means to a lot of people. I've been at a couple other schools and for a lot of reasons Idaho State cares about Idaho State. To the alumni and everyone who came I hope you enjoyed everything such as the festivities and the show. I hope everybody realized that what they saw today was a pretty solid performance, but not a great performance."
"It was an improved performance against a football team that is trying to find itself. Sacramento State came in without a win and their quarterback just played outstanding. He rushed for over a 100 yards and threw for a billion and their quarterback played really well and was the wildcard for them on an offense that they have not shown in the past. It was a little disconcerting for us to get run by there late in the ball game. My mom, when she gave birth to me and a long time ago one of the first things she said to me when I said I was going to be in coaching was "Don't get beat deep." She continues to believe in that and Jan Kramer's idiom probably didn't get followed today in the way we want to follow it."
"We cannot give up those home run plays. We've got to put more pressure on the quarterback and find more ways to get off the field defensively. Outstanding big play performance by a lot of guys. One thing we did was challenge our team to be a little bit more of a running team. We rushed the ball for 198 yards,
 but a lot of it came on one play and there were a lot of one yard and two yard and three yard runs that need to turn into four and five yard runs for us. The cool part about it is that we found enough points to win and the defense scored for the first time since 2011."
"I hate to bring my family back into this again, but my oldest daughter has been asking for it for about four years now.
 So Kourtney can go home tonight and sleep well although mom won't sleep well at all because we got run by. I'm proud of our team, I'm proud of my coaches, I'm proud of the way we played and I'm excited about next week. 1-0 on the season, those first three games are water under the bridge and we're 1-0, all I know is we're undefeated."
Jakori Ford
"I am proud of the way we held onto the lead when it looked like they were getting momentum. I like our demeanor and the way we fought through it. We kept battling."
"I know what our running back core is capable of. We are all explosive and can hit it on any play. We are not going to shy away from it."
"I saw a bunch of confidence. Everybody was feeding off of each other. We just wanted to keep the clock rolling and the chains moving and break off big plays. Big plays are important but it gives the entire team momentum."
"Mikey Dean is special. Not a lot of players are like him in any conference or Division. He is hungry. To be honest it is no surprise he did what he did. We all know he can do it. I am proud of him that when he got his opportunities he made the most of it. He has a long time to be here. We are getting a glimpse of the future with young guys breaking off big plays."
Game Notes
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Michael Dean's 91 yard touchdown run was the second longest run in ISU history. The school record is 99 by Lyle Anderson vs. Western State in 1969. His 154 rushing yards is the 35
th-best single-game performance in ISU history. Â Dean's 91-yard run was also the longest offensive play during the
Mike Kramer era at ISU.
- Game captains were
Mario Jenkins,
Jakori Ford,
Nikko Taylor and
Trae Pilster.
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Nikko Taylor scored his first-career touchdown on an interception in in the fourth quarter.
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Josh Cook had a career-high 118 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
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Anthony Ricks had his second-career interception.
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Chase Collins saw his first action of the season at offensive line.
- In four games the Bengals have five plays of 60-yards or more. Prior to Saturday's game,
Jakori Ford had a 75-yard touchdown run at Oregon State and
KW Williams caught a 63-yard touchdown pass vs. Simon Fraser.
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