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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Vandals top Bengals for first win of season


Idaho Vandals players celebrate with fans after defeating Idaho State on Saturday in Moscow.
 (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

MOSCOW, Idaho – There was something of a tug of war going on as University of Idaho football coach Dennis Erickson tried to describe the Vandals’ 27-24 win over Idaho State on Saturday.

In the end, practicality and reality won out over the coach’s desire to play clean, flawless football. After all, this is a program that has won 11 games in the last five years. The Vandals have endured coaching changes, conference changes, off-field tragedy and numerous humbling defeats, so the victory, even with its fair share of warts, was embraced and savored by Erickson and his players.

For a day, at least.

“It’s a win, I’m not going to give it back to anybody,” said Erickson, who notched his first victory in his second tour of duty with Idaho. “I told them to enjoy the moment because when I see you (today) the moment is going to change (in film study). But they deserve it; they’ve been through a lot. They deserve to have some time to celebrate.”

And they might need some coaching in that department, too. Marlon Haynes, who came up with four catches for 88 yards, hauled in an ISU onside kick with 45 seconds left to preserve the victory. Per UI tradition, the players sang the fight song in front of the students and then with fans in the south-side sections of the Kibbie Dome.

Haynes, though, was walking toward the locker room with a teammate when he realized he wasn’t in the right place.

“I didn’t know about that,” said Haynes, who could be excused for the oversight since it was only his second game in a Vandal uniform. “When I saw everybody over there I had to run and catch up with them.”

The Vandals (1-2) flashed some big-play potential – thanks to Haynes, senior Wendell Octave and running back Brian Flowers – an effective pass rush and an ability to force turnovers. Those elements had been missing in Idaho’s first two games and virtually everything was absent in last week’s 56-10 loss to Washington State.

“It was a long week, a very long week, starting right after the (WSU) game,” said cornerback Stanley Franks, who intercepted two passes. “The tempo in practice was up more. When you have a sour taste in your mouth like that you can either back down or stand up. I feel a lot of guys at practice stood up.”

The Vandals didn’t make it easy on themselves. They seemed poised to open up a comfortable lead several times, only to throw an interception in the end zone and yield a couple of ISU scoring drives at the end of each half.

The first narrowed Idaho’s lead to 17-10 at half, even though the Vandals had dominated play for the most part. The second – a three-play, 1-minute and 17-second march – brought the NCAA Division I-AA Bengals within 20-17 with 6:11 remaining and had 15,162 on the edge of their seats in the Dome.

Idaho answered with an 80-yard scoring drive that Flowers capped by breaking away from a couple of defenders on a 9-yard TD run. That bumped Idaho’s lead to 27-17 and it was able to weather a last-minute Bengals touchdown.

“We talked in the huddle and we said, ‘This is a must touchdown, we have to score no matter what it takes,’ ” tight end Luke Smith-Anderson said.

Before Flowers found the end zone, Idaho needed a clutch conversion on a third-and-9 from its 46. Enter Central Valley High grad Ryan Heacock, whose first catch of the season was a timely one.

“There are times we sit down and talk about who you would want in this situation on that particular play and on that particular play Ryan Heacock is the guy we want to go to,” Erickson said. “He didn’t play a lot, but it’s an option route in spread with no backs. He really does that well.”

The Vandal defense was fairly solid. Middle linebacker Jo Artis Ratti, who sat out the first two games with a shoulder injury, made an immediate impact with six tackles. Linebacker David Vobora had double-digit tackles for the third straight game. Cornerback Kiel McDonald, starting in place of the injured Reggie Jones, made numerous plays.

“We simplified,” defensive coordinator Jeff Mills said. “We just went back to our base stuff and tried to get better at the fundamentals.”

The Bengals (1-2) finished with 383 yards, but they had only two drives last longer than three minutes.

“I thought we left some plays on the field and I’m sure Idaho feels the same way,” Idaho State coach Larry Lewis said.