Bengals break through

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dthompson@journalnet.com

POCATELLO -- Like a can of paint tipped on its side, the orange-and-black-clad Idaho State football players spilled onto Babe Caccia Field.

They piled onto Kenyon Blue in the corner of the east end zone, smothering him so completely that the senior running back had to fight just to keep breathing in the scrum.

Then players lingered on the field with helmets held high, and the piercing shrill of victory chants filled Holt Arena.

It was only one win, but the Idaho State football team celebrated its 36-33 season-ending overtime victory over Sacramento State like it meant much more than most.

"It was amazing," said senior linebacker Ryan Phipps. "It feels like I just won a national championship."

A national championship, this was not.

For now, though, a victory was enough for the Bengals, who broke their 15-game losing streak and dodged the first 0-12 season in program history with an estimated crowd of 4,814 watching from the stands.

A lot went right for Idaho State on Saturday that hadn't in its previous 11 games this season. Against the Hornets, the Bengals didn't turn the ball over. They outgained their foe 525 to 365, piling more yards on Sacramento State than any team had this season.

Idaho State (1-7 Big Sky, 1-11 overall) led almost the entire game, and it overcame a three-point deficit with 51 seconds to go in regulation.

Senior Kenyon Blue was everywhere. His 51-yard return set up junior Mike Ramos' game-tying, 42-yard field goal with 8 seconds left, and Blue scored three touchdowns, including the game-winning 16-yard scamper in the first overtime.

"I'm gonna love that dude until I die," said senior receiver Eddie Thompson, who took a number of snaps as quarterback in the Hobo offense. "Even when I die, when I'm buried in my casket, he's the man right there. He is the man."

The Bengals pulled out a number of gimmick plays, most of them putting a now-healthy Thompson in shotgun for the first time since the 2006 season. On one of those plays in the third quarter, Thompson took the snap, faked a handoff to Blue, then ran to his left as if he were running an option with tight end Trevor Messersmith.

But instead, he flipped the ball behind him to junior quarterback Kyle Blum, who then heaved the ball down the right sideline to Blue, won dove into the end zone for a 54-yard touchdown.

"We knew they would probably do some different things," Hornets coach Marshall Sperbeck said, "but what, we didn't know."

That score extended Idaho State's lead to 24-13 with 11:37 left in the third, and it represented the Bengals' first double-digit lead all season.

Yet the Bengals couldn't close it out in regulation.

Continuing a first-half trend, sophomore running back Bryan Hilliard gashed the Bengals defense seemingly every time he touched the ball in the second half. He scored four times in the game, including the lead-seizing score with 51 seconds left in the fourth quarter, and finished with 271 yards on 40 carries.

Those marks broke Hilliard's personal records that he set a year ago when the Bengals lost 41-30 in Sacramento, Calif.

But in the end, Hilliard wasn't enough for Sacramento State (3-5, 6-6).

Trailing 30-27 with 51 seconds left, Blue fielded the kickoff deep in his own end zone and wiggled his way to the Idaho State 42-yard line.

Blum connected on passes of 23, 15 and 4 yards to get Idaho State to the Hornets' 25-yard line, and Ramos' sent the game to overtime with his third field goal of the game.

"(Blum) was putting down the hold, and I saw no laces, no anything," Ramos said of the game-tying kick. "I didn't even see any white on the ball, and I thought, 'This one's going through.'"

After a Juan Gamboa field goal gave Sacramento State a 33-30 lead in overtime, Blue scored three plays into Idaho State's possession on a run off right tackle.

He finished with a career-high 111 rushing yards on 18 carries and became Idaho State's first 100-yard rusher this season.

Blum, in his second start, threw for 342 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions. He found sophomore Isaiah Burel six times for 127 yards, including a 59-yard gain that set up a field goal before halftime, when Idaho State led 17-13.

"Kyle has a cannon," ISU coach John Zamberlin said. "He can get the ball out there behind people."

Sacramento State's Jason Smith fared far worse than his counterpart. He completed just 11-of-27 passes for 99 yards, becoming the second straight starting quarterback to throw for fewer than 100 yards against Idaho State.

It was performances like those -- on both sides of the ball -- that had coaches and players speaking optimistically about the future of Idaho State.

That they could celebrate a victory for the program's seniors made it all the sweeter. It wasn't anything close to a championship. But it was a victory for a program seeking validation and a renewed pitch to recruits.

By Dan Thompson

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