POCATELLO — The game went the way it was expected to go.
Idaho State rolled up 556 yards in total offense, scored touchdowns running the football, throwing the football, on special teams and defensively in routing Division II Western Oregon 50-10.
It was the home opener at the ICCU Dome and moved the Bengals' record on the year to 1-1.
The crowd of 6,252 saw history as it is believed the four different ways ISU scored in a single game had never happened before in the history of the program.
“I told the guys in the locker room it’s tough to draw a lot from this game just like it’s tough to draw a lot from last week’s game. I thought there was a lot of great today, I thought there was a lot of good learning today, but you never want to hang your head after a win,” said ISU head coach Cody Hawkins. “I thought our guys were excited and as hard as our guys have worked, they deserved to have a smile on their face and I want them to have fun playing football.”
What Hawkins means by “drawing a lot” is that last week ISU played a much bigger program in Oregon State, formerly of the Pac-12 conference, and Saturday they played a much smaller one as the Wolves play in the Lone Star Conference.
That being said it was a domination from the start. After only 19 minutes of action, Bengal quarterback Kobe Tracy had hit on 18 of 22 throws for 233 yards and three touchdowns as he methodically picked apart Western Oregon’s defense.
Two of those touchdowns went to redshirt freshman Ian Duarte. The former Eagle High School receiver had himself a first quarter grabbing eight catches for 118 yards and the two touchdowns. He ended the game with nine catches and 123 yards. He played in the slot most of that time.
“The last couple weeks it’s been my preparation which enabled me to play the way I did today,” Duarte said.
Hawkins talked about Duarte and his breakout performance Saturday.
“Ian played awesome (and) he probably could have had a few more," Hawkins said. "The thing you love about Ian is he’s got a fantastic attitude, he’s super consistent and I think all the quarterbacks feel that Ian is a really good athlete. He’s not electric but he’s so consistent. I think the quarterbacks have a lot of faith in him and the staff has a lot of faith in him."
And it was clear Duarte had a connection with Tracy who targeted him nine times in that first quarter.
Duarte said, “Kobe as a quarterback, he’s calm and he has a lot of experience. He doesn’t get too down if he makes a mistake. He’s a receiver's quarterback. He’s always constantly asking us questions. He’s a field general and the captain.”
Tracy finished the game throwing for 343 yards with 28 completions and four scores. He did throw two interceptions however.
Idaho State led 17-0 after the first quarter and never looked back, stretching the lead to 34-3 at halftime.
With 55 seconds left in the half, ISU's Jayden Bell, a Highland High School alum, shot right up the middle on a Western punt attempt and got a clean block on the ball. ISU's Junior Damuni fell on it in the end zone for the touchdown. It was Idaho State’s first blocked punt since 2007.
“Bell is a guy who is just frothing at the mouth to play football,” Hawkins said with a smile on his face in the postgame press conference.
In the third quarter it was the Bengal defense's turn to get a score. Cortland Horton blew up his blocker and sacked Wolves quarterback Kainoa Jones. The ball squirted out to the side where ISU's Janari Boone scooped it up and ran it back 28 yards for a score.
Horton had an exceptional game himself with eight tackles. Three of them were sacks and three were tackles for a loss. For the game the Bengals sacked Western quarterbacks four times.
“Overall I’m glad how we played, nobody quit and we played hard to the end but we do have some things to clean up both offensively and defensively,” Horton said after the game.
The only real bad news for the Bengals came after the very first offensive snap when starting center and team leader Alex Ramirez was helped off the field, unable to put any weight on his left leg. Hawkins was asked if he could share any details on Ramirez's condition. “I can only say so much but he’s going to be out awhile,” the coach said.
Next week comes the first real test for ISU as they play at North Dakota, an FCS playoff team a year ago. It’s a long trip even by air and the Alerus Center is a tough place to play and Hawkins knows that.
“Road games are hard to play at any level. We’re going to play a team that made the playoffs," Hawkins said. "I’ve lost games there before and I’ve got a ton of respect for the Fighting Hawks. They are a darn good football team.”
After what happened Saturday you can bet UND's fans will be in to it full force. UND trailed Montana 21-7 after the first quarter, then held the Grizzlies to three points the rest of the game in coming from behind to get the 27-24 win.
Next Saturday's contest will also be an early game by ISU standards with a 1 p.m. kickoff in Grand Forks, or high noon in Southeast Idaho when factoring in the time zone change.
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