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The Redbirds wasted no time jumping to an early lead, taking the
opening kickoff and driving 58 yards in nine plays to take a 7-0
lead. The drive was capped off by a four-yard touchdown pass from
Luke Drone to Laurent Robinson, their sixth TD connection of the
season, to give ISU the advantage with 9:35 left in the first
quarter. The lead for ISU would not last long, as YSU answered
immediately on its next drive on a 17-yard touchdown pass from Tom
Zetts to T.J. Peterson to knot the score at 7-7 with 5:08 left in
the first quarter. On its next drive, ISU had a chance to once again
take the lead on YSU, but a missed 36-yard field goal by Kevin Mazur
kept the score tied heading into the second quarter.
With 4:14 left in the first half, Zetts capped off a 15-play,
70-yard scoring drive for the Penguins on a two-yard quarterback
sneak to give YSU its first lead of the game at 14-7. The Redbirds
had a chance to tie the game with under a minute to play and on
their next possession; however, Drone threw his second interception
of the game, and the Penguins took their one-touchdown lead into the
locker room at halftime.
YSU took possession to start the second half and made the best of
it, driving 66 yards in six plays to extend its lead to two
touchdowns. Zetts connected on a 28-yard touchdown pass in the back
of the end zone to put the Penguins up 21-7 with 12:11 left in the
third quarter. After an ISU punt, YSU drove 80 yards in 10 plays and
Marcus Mason ran in from two yards out for a touchdown to extend the
Penguins' lead to 28-7 with 5:13 left in the third quarter.
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 The Penguins took their three-touchdown lead into the fourth
quarter and stopped the Redbirds on fourth down to get the ball back
with 14:18 left in the game. The Redbird defense held and the ISU
offense drove 51 yards in eight plays to cut the lead in half. With
9:45 left in the game and ISU facing fourth-and-goal from the
two-yard line, Drone's pass found Robinson in the end zone for their
second touchdown connection of the game, to bring ISU closer at
28-14.
After Cameron Siskowic forced a Mason fumble and James Temple
recovered to give the ball back to the 'Birds, Drone scrambled seven
yards to end a seven-play, 38-yard scoring drive that took just 1:24
off the clock to bring the score to 28-21 with 3:09 left in the
fourth quarter.
ISU attempted an onside kick, but YSU's Todd Rowan recovered the
ball at the 44-yard line to give the Penguins the ball. Once again,
the Redbird defense held, giving the ball back to the offense with
2:18 left. However, Drone threw his fourth interception of the day
and the Penguins ran out the clock to secure the seven-point victory
and advance to the semifinals to face Appalachian State.
Rembert finished the game with 114 yards on 24 carries for ISU,
his 12th game of the season with over 100 yards rushing. Robinson's
87 yards receiving gave him 3,017 for his career, just the fifth
receiver in Gateway Football Conference history to have over 3,000
yards receiving. Mason paved the way for the Penguins, rushing for
138 yards on 26 carries, and Zetts threw for 146 yards on 11-of-21
passing and two touchdowns.
[Statistics] [To download Adobe Acrobat Reader for the PDF
file, click here.]
[News release provided by Mike
Williams,
Illinois
State University] |
