PHOTO GALLERY
POCATELLO, Idaho- After trailing 6-0 late in the first half, the Idaho State football team scored 37 straight points to beat Western Oregon 37-6 on Thursday night in Holt Arena. The Bengals trailed 6-3 at halftime and then scored 34 second half points to earn the victory.
The win gave
Rob Phenicie his first career victory as a head coach. Idaho State tallied 431 yards of total offense while Western Oregon managed 299.
Tanner Gueller threw for 289 yards, completing 20 passes on 33 attempts for three touchdowns and two interceptions.
Tanner Conner caught four passes for 73 yards,
Austin Campbell caught two passes for 78 yards and a touchdown.
Michael Dean caught five passes for 66 yards and one touchdown.
Ty Flanagan rushed for 100 yards on 14 carries and one touchdown.
ISU had 142 rushing yards and held Western Oregon to -3 rushing yards.
Anthony Ricks led the defensive attack with 10 tackles, while
Mario Jenkins had nine tackles, two tackles and two tackles for loss.
Kody Graves and
Adkin Aguirre each had eight tackles.
Aguirre had a game-changing interception in the third quarter. After a Bengal turnover and a three and out by the ISU offense, Aguirre picked off quarterback Nick Duckworth on the second play of the drive to set up the go-ahead score by the ISU offense.
Following the pick, ISU drove 42 yards on 11 plays and Gueller hit Johnson on a three-yard touchdown strike to give ISU a 9-6 lead.
The lead was extended to 16-6 with two minutes left in the third quarter when a 98-yard scoring drive was capped off by a
Austin Campbell 71-yard touchdown pass.
Idaho State tacked on a 20-yard Flanagan touchdown run with 12:28 left in the game and less than two minutes later
Kieran Yancy scored on a three-yard run after a Western Oregon punt sailed near the goal line.
The final score of the game came when Gueller found Dean open for a 15-yard reception.
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Idaho State returns to the field Thursday, September 7 for a 6 p.m. contest at Utah State.
Post Game Press Conference
Rob Phenicie Post Game Quotes
"In the second half Matt Troxel did a great job of getting
Tanner Gueller dialed in. We had a couple of big plays and our defense settled down after giving up a couple of field goals. We weren't helping the defense at all with field position in the first half. Give credit to those guys. It was a hard fought victory. We were down at halftime and no one flinched. We just set our jaws and said keep our heads up. We won the fourth quarter, which is what we practice every day. You get what you emphasize."
"We just executed better in the second half and the defense made some plays. We got that turnover in the third quarter and we got going. I thought our kids played hard the whole game. I liked the emotion. I liked the emotion in the fourth quarter. I liked the emotion when we pinned them on a kickoff down inside the 20. We told them we weren't going to let off."
Notes
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Rob Phenicie earned his first career-win as a head coach.
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Ty Flanagan rushed for a career-high 100 yards on 14 carries and one touchdown. Last year he rushed for 121 yards on 40 carries. His previous career high was 11 carries at Montana and 38 yards rushing vs. Simon Fraser in 2016.
- The following Bengals played their first career Division I college football game:
Nehamiah McFarlin,
Tanner Conner, Scooby Reynolds,
Jake Johnson,
Koby Lowe,
Atoa Fox,
Jrue Perkins,
Parker Johnson,
Kennon Smith,
Dane Kordopatis,
TJ Togiai,
Raemo Trevino and
Nate Shubert.
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Anthony Ricks was one tackle away from tying his career-high of 11 vs. SUU in 2016.
- Three touchdown passes by
Tanner Gueller tied his career-high. He has three touchdown passes six times.
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Michael Dean's 66 receiving yards was a career-high.
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Parker Johnson's 40-yard field goal with five seconds left in the second quarter was his first career points as a Bengal. He was also 3-for-3 on extra points.
- 8 tackles by
Adkin Aguirre and
Kody Graves was a career-high. Aguirre had his first-career interception.
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Koby Lowe had four tackles in his first career game.
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