Vandals slip past Wofford

MOSCOW, Idaho – Matt Linehan has never been happier to see the Vulcan Salute. Fans of the popular Sci-Fi series Star Trek know the symbol well – Spock sticks his thumb out and creates a ‘V’ with his other four fingers to express living long and prospering. For Linehan, a redshirt sophomore, it’s hopefully a symbol of many career victories and a prosperous career full of touchdowns as the starting quarterback at Idaho. More specifically, it’s Idaho’s symbol for victory formation – coined by former Idaho quarterback Taylor Davis. Linehan lined up in the formation for the first time in his career with a minute remaining, putting the finishing touches on a 41-38 win over Wofford on Saturday afternoon in front of an announced 11,633 fans at the Kibbie Dome. “It feels great, it got the weight off my shoulders,” Linehan said. “It feels great, great team win. Now we can shift our focus.” Linehan led the winning drive early in the fourth quarter. On fourth-and-7 from the Wofford 44, Linehan dropped back on a play intended for one of two receivers running vertical routes. Instead, Linehan took advantage of open turf in front of him and took off on a 34-yard scramble. “He did a great job of reading it, took off and ran and made a great play,” Idaho coach Paul Petrino said. Sophomore running back Aaron Duckworth scored his third and final rushing touchdown of the game on a 10-yard counter the next play to put Idaho back on top of a back-and-forth contest. In the third quarter, Linehan’s second interception of the game backed Idaho into a punch-for-punch battle with the visiting Terriers. He forced a pass into the corner of the end zone which was picked off by Brion Anderson. Wofford running back Lorenzo Long burst 51 yards for a touchdown three plays later to give the Terriers their first lead at the 5:54 mark in the quarter. The teams traded touchdowns before Idaho’s defense came up with two massive stops late in the fourth quarter. The Vandals clamped down with four tackles for loss and a perfectly defended, fourth-down pass during Wofford’s two final drives, resulting in a punt and a turnover on downs. Prior to that, Wofford put together 11 runs of 10 or more yards, including five runs of 25 or more yards. “We just went back to assignment football. (Covering the) pitch, dive, quarterback and that caused them to slow down a little bit,” Idaho safety Russell Siavii said. “We took them apart at the end. Just run to the ball even faster. We had to turn up the tempo a little bit.” Siavii got the shootout started with a fumble recovery for a touchdown with 6:23 left in the first quarter off of a botched pitch from Wofford quarterback Brad Butler. Other than that, it was Idaho’s offense getting the deep passing game working that led to Petrino’s third career victory as coach at Idaho. Junior tight end Trent Cowan surpassed career highs with seven catches for 107 yards and a touchdown. Dezmon Epps returned from his suspension at USC last week with a 10-catch, 139-yard effort. Senior running back Elijhaa Penny ran for 98 yards on 19 carries.