Vandals come up short at Idaho State

From wire and news services

POCATELLO — Idaho State jumped out to a 14-0 lead and went on to beat the Idaho Vandals 24-22 on Saturday at Holt Arena.

Tyler Vander Waal passed for 398 yards, including a 32-yard touchdown pass to former Rigby High star Christian Fredrickson in the fourth quarter, for Idaho State (2-3, 2-3 Big Sky Conference). Vander Waal was 21 of 35 passing with two interceptions. Tanner Conner had nine receptions for 208 yards for Idaho State.

"We put ourselves in a tough position, and had to come from behind again," Idaho coach Paul Petrino said. "Throughout the whole game, we just didn't play well enough to win the game. That's the bottom line."

ISU scored on its first two possessions to get up 14-0 early in the first quarter.

Malakai Rango capped a 10-play, 94-yard drive with a 3-yard touchdown run to open the scoring midway through the first quarter and then a nine-play, 89-yard drive culminating with Hunter Raiden's 17-yard TD scamper gave the Bengals a 14-0 lead with 1:53 left in the first quarter.

Idaho (2-2, 2-2), ranked No. 24 in the STATS FCS poll, scored 15 consecutive points — including three field goals by Cade Coffey, a senior from Lakeland High — to take its first lead late in the third quarter. Kevin Ryan made a 20-yard field goal early in the fourth and, after the Vandals went three-and-out, Idaho State went 92 yards to make it 24-15 on Fredrickson's TD with 8:32 left.

Idaho backup quarterback Nikhil Nayar connected with Hayden Hatten on an 18-yard touchdown pass to make it 24-22 with 2:48 to go. After an Idaho State punt, the Vandals had one last chance from their own 42 with 52 seconds left but Oshea Trujillo broke up a pass intended for Roshaun Johnson on fourth-and-11 to seal it.

"That last drive we were in a good position to score and we got an offensive (pass interference), which is as bad a penalty as you can get, because it moves you way back, and you lose a down," Petrino said.

Trujillo finished with nine tackles, a sack, and five passes defended for Idaho State.

Nayar finished 11 of 34 passing for 130 yards and added a 6-yard rushing touchdown for Idaho.

"We had guys open; we struggled hitting them," Petrino said. "There was a lot of third downs where we had guys open; we've just got to execute. That's tough. That's why in football, all 11 guys have got to do their job. There were a few times where a lot of guys did it and one guy didn't, and there was a couple of times where we did put it on there and didn't catch it. And that's why offense is all 11 guys have to do their job, and we just didn't do that enough today to get the victory.

"It's a little bit of a function where we only had three receivers today, and we played three different quarterbacks, but we're not going to make any excuses," Petrino said.

Tre Walker led Idaho with 13 tackles, and Christian Elliss added 11. On the defensive line, Jonah Kim picked up two sacks and three total tackles for loss.

Idaho plays at Eastern Washington next Saturday at 1 p.m.