ISU football ends season on sour note

Sycamores finish 2009 with 1-10 record

By Todd Golden

When it came to things that went wrong for the Indiana State football team in the second half of its season finale against North Dakota State on Saturday the ground was pretty definitively covered.

The ISU offense? Not evident. The Sycamore defense? Not present. The special teams? Not special.

The fireworks? Yes, even the fireworks failed in the Sycamores’ 56-17 loss to NDSU at Memorial Stadium — a salvo was accidentally fired off after the first of the Bison’s four second-half touchdowns.

The pyrotechnic ignominy was just one more grain of salt added to the deep wounds NDSU administered to the Sycamores in a poor second-half performance that ends the season on a sour note.

“It hurts a lot, just like it has after every loss. But spring ball isn’t there this time, so it really hurts a lot,” said ISU senior defensive end Daniel Millington, one of eight Sycamore seniors to finish their careers.

Had ISU won, the Sycamores (1-10, 1-7) would have finished no worse than sixth place in the conference. ISU will now finish in seventh place with Western Illinois having a mathematical shot of tying them for the spot.

“It’s frustrating, especially being a defensive guy. We’ve done well shutting down the run all year. We were missing a lot of tackles and not coming out as hard as we have the last 10 weeks,” Millington said.

The Bison — who made their first visit to Terre Haute after joining the conference in 2008, and who had a sizable contingent of fans on hand — quickly put ISU back on its heels and never completely relinquished momentum.

The Bison (3-7, 2-5) ran the ball down the Sycamores’ throats, amassing 294 rushing yards and 464 yards of total offense overall. That total doesn’t include NDSU’s 248 return yards. All told, NDSU had 712 total yards.

“They went through us like a hot knife through butter. They ran up and down the field on us,” ISU coach Trent Miles said. “That’s what was surprising to me. [The defense] had been consistent most of the season. I thought today [NDSU] would run it down our throat and we’d stop the run the way we had been, but it didn’t happen.”

NDSU tailback Pat Paschall, the nation’s leading FCS rusher, did nothing to hurt his NFL stock. He rushed for 129 yards, had four touchdowns, and averaged 8.1 yards per carry. Paschall had 97 of his yards by the end of the first quarter as the Bison had a 14-3 lead.

“Coach [Craig] Bohl stressed all during the week that it was going to be a dogfight. They’re a scrappy team. If you let them get up on you, we could be in trouble. We came in with the idea we wanted to get started on them early,” Paschall said.

However, ISU’s offense hung in there with the Bison, matching scoring drive for scoring drive. Quarterback Ryan Roberts capped a 10-play, 69-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown dive over the top to make it 14-10 early in the second quarter. After Paschall scored the third of his four touchdowns, ISU responded with a quick drive in response, as Antoine Brown serpentined 42 yards on a touchdown run to make it 21-17 with 2:22 left in the half.

Brown had 111 rushing yards, he was one of the few bright spots for ISU.

That’s where ISU’s competitiveness ended. NDSU responded with a textbook two-minute drill as Matt Veldman’s 9-yard touchdown catch made it 28-17 with less than a minute to go in the half. Having a two-possession lead at the break meant a lot to the Bison, who wanted to take away any hope the Sycamores might have been brewing.

“It meant a lot to us. It showed us that we could score when we wanted to score,” NDSU quarterback Jose Mohler said.

Familiar disaster struck the Sycamores to start the second half. ISU got the ball to midfield before it had to punt. ISU punter Gabe Mullane was pressured and NDSU’s Brock Goin got a hand up to swat Mullane’s punt nearly 40 yards behind the scrimmage line. NDSU’s Kevin Jackson swooped up a gift fumble recovery at the ISU 4 and strolled in for an easy touchdown to make it 35-17.

It is the fourth time this season ISU has had a punt blocked in its own territory that led to a short field for an opponent’s touchdown. It is the second time a punt block directly resulted in a touchdown.

From that point, ISU was listless. NDSU scored touchdowns on its next three drives. By contrast, ISU managed just 67 yards of offense and three first downs after the break.

“It seemed to me we weren’t lining up right. There was a lot of mental mistakes. There were a few where they were just better than us in the hole, they just made us miss,” Miles said. “Our kids never quit, but when things go wrong, they continue to snowball.”

The only spark came when NDSU faked a punt late in the fourth quarter as punter John Prevlitz gained a first down on 4th-and-1, which led to anger from the ISU sideline. Bohl apologized to Miles after the game. Apparently, Prevlitz called an audible when he saw an open lane in ISU’s coverage.

The priority for ISU in the off-season is obvious ... find more talent that can immediately help the program.

“We’ll start working out Monday. We’ve got to get bigger, faster, stronger and we have to get more recruits in here. Our coaches need to do a great job recruiting. We have to have a better understanding of what we’re doing scheme-wise, so we don’t have the communication problems and not lining up right,” Miles said.

Last season, ISU suffered heartbreak in its finale when Missouri State scored on the last play of regulation to force a tie before it won in overtime. ISU suffered a much more definitive loss to end its season this year, but seniors like Millington didn’t have their confidence shaken.

“It’s sour for us because we don’t get a chance to redeem ourselves, but we take a lot of pride in what we’ve taught these younger guys to play hard. We taught them what it means to guys like us to play here. We have all the faith in the world they’ll come back strong and keep working,” Millington said.

Text Only | Photo Reprints