PHOTO GALLERY
POCATELLO, Idaho - The Idaho State football team lost 56-17 to UC Davis Saturday afternoon at Holt Arena in front of a crowd of 5,762 on Senior Day.
UC Davis led the entire game and built a 21-0 lead before the Bengals were able to get on the scoreboard.
Idaho State tallied over 410 yards of total offense while UC Davis finished with 488. The Bengals had 173 yards rushing led by
James Madison's 81 yards on 17 carries.
Ty Flanagan rushed for 77 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries.
Tanner Gueller passed for 183 yards in the first half and was 13-21. Gueller was unavailable in the second half and Gunnar Amos threw for 54 yards on 18 attempts with two interceptions. Amos also rushed for 21 yards.
Michael Dean and Mitch Gueller both had six receptions for 55 and 50 yards, respectively.
The Idaho State defense was led by
Mario Jenkins 13 tackles.
Nikko Hayes added 12 tackles and a fumble recovery.
The Aggies started the game with three first quarter touchdown drives before ISU could get on the scoreboard.
To start the second quarter the Bengals put together a 10 play 75 yard drive that ended with a Flanagan four yard touchdown run with 14:56 left in the first half. UC Davis countered with a touchdown with 11:25 left in the second quarter. Matt Peterson connected on a 25 yard field goal on the first attempt of his college career to make the score 28-10 at halftime.
The Bengals started out the second half with a couple of strong defensive stops and a blocked punt that ISU recovered on the four yard line. Two plays later Flanagan scored his second touchdown of the game on a two yard run to cut the ISU deficit to 28-17 with 8:56 left in the third quarter. The Aggies then went on to score the final 28 points of the game.
Idaho State has a bye next week before finishing the season at Weber State on Nov. 18 at 2:00 p.m.
Post Game Notes
- This was the final home game for Hagen Graves, Chase Collins, Mario Jenkins, Nikko Hayes, Zak Johnson, Skyler Phillips, Andrew Burtenshaw, Micah Breland and JonRhyeem Peoples. They were honored prior to the start of the game.
- Ty Flanagan's two rushing touchdowns gives him 11 for the season and moves him into a tie for six place with Alfredo Anderson (1995) and Merril Hoge (1984) for most rushing touchdowns in a season. The single-season record is 14 by Xavier Finney in 2014.
- Tanner Gueller moved into fifth place for career passing yards with his 183 yards passing. He has 5,875. He passed Mark Hetherington's 5,718 yards. Kevin Yost is in fourth place with 6,663 yards (2011-12).
- ISU has scored 40 touchdowns this year tied with the 2000 team for the sixth most touchdowns scored in a year.
- Matt Peterson tallied his first career points as a Bengal. He connected on a 25-yard field goal and made both of his extra points.
- In Mario Jenkins last home game he had 13 tackles. Nikko Hayes had 12 and a fumble recovery.
- Ty Flanagan caught three passes for a career-best 48 yards. His 31 yard reception was a career-long.
- Chance Salutregui was one tackle away from tying his career-high of 10 set last year vs. North Dakota.
Rob Phenicie Post Game Quotes
"You can't have turnovers and you have to convert third downs when the game is on the line and you have to get off the field on third down. Credit to coach Hawkins and the Aggies. They have a really good thing going with their offense and they played well on defense."
"It is always difficult when you are playing against one of the top players in your division. He is a good ball player. The bigger thing is Jake Maier going 29-40. That is him. He is effective."
On Gunnar Amos playing the Second Half
"Tanner couldn't't perform in the second half and I can't speak about interviews. We told Gunnar to get ready to go at halftime. Gunnar is a smooth operator. He is a cool customer and he doesn't't get phased by a heck of a lot. In the locker room I said lets make 12 look good. Everyone did the best they can to rally around Gunnar. It is impossible to go through the whole season with one quarterback. The guys like him. He is one of those guys that all the fellas like. It was good that it took this long to get to him. It's a blessing to go 10 weeks without having to play your backup in a serious situation."
On Losing JonRhyeem Peoples Early
That hurts losing your big guy. It was a legit call. It was straight face mask to face mask. You can't do that. The thing that hurts more is that it was senior day and he played five plays or whatever did and he is out. He will be back for the last game.
When you get down like that early in the game you don't go into full blown panic mode. You stay the course and get some stops and the offense has to go get one.
Our two running backs ran hard. That is a constant with this team with James and Ty. We will go back and look at the effort. We tell the kids they control attitude and effort, those are the two things. We control everything else. We'll look for the effort during the game.
We should have had Matt Peterson kicking all year. He has ice in his veins. Matts sister is in the Hall of Fame for soccer. The kids gets it up. He gets great elevation. He gets great height on it.
We had 85 plays but it felt like we had 12. We had 410 yards of offense but it felt like we had 15. It was one of those games that was a grind. We had the possession. We have to go back and look and fix it.
