Western Illinois' Second Half Comeback Spoils ISU Senior Day, 34-28

TERRE HAUTE, IN - (11-8-2003) — It was a tale of two halves for the Sycamores (3-8, 0-6 Gateway) as they took a 28-17 lead into the halftime locker room before giving up 17 unanswered points as Western Illinois (7-3, 4-2 Gateway) en route to a 34-28 Leatherneck victory on senior day at Memorial Stadium in front of 2,001 fans.

The first score was set up on a bit of trickery for the Sycamores as Chris Lewis hit Carl Berman on a reverse pass on the first play from scrimmage to put the ball down into Western Illinois territory. Quarterback Phillip Johnson hit Ryan King for a big gainer on second down to move the ball within the Leatherneck 10-yard line where Johnson’s one-yard scamper gave ISU the early 7-0 lead with 12:28 to go in the first quarter. The run netted Johnson his third rushing score of the season.

Western Illinois came back with some trickery of their own as WIU’s Reggie Gray took a reverse for 26 yards on the ground to move himself within scoring distance. From there, the Leathernecks’ Travis Glasford took over from the backfield, finally plunging in from a yard out to tie the score at seven with 7:43 left in the first stanza.

After a Sycamore punt, the Leathernecks moved right back down the field on a nine-play, 64-yard drive that saw Russ Michna connect with Randall Moore on a two-yard strike to move WIU back up 14-7 with 52 seconds left in the first.

The highly active first quarter continued on as ISU’s Johnson connected with Scott Penick for a 75-yard touchdown strike – the longest play from scrimmage of the season – to tie the game up at 14 as the first quarter expired.

The Leathernecks went up 17-14 when Justin Langan nailed a 51-yard field goal with 13:38 left in the second quarter, a drive that was set up by a 31-yard kickoff return by Charles Hayden.

The Sycamores took the ball in later portions of the second quarter and put together a five-play, 52-yard drive that ended with Johnson connecting to Sam Logan for his second touchdown pass of the day to move ISU up 21-17. The drive was extended when Pat Jordan was roughed on a punt attempt to give the Sycamores a first and ten.

ISU’s defense forced a Leatherneck punt and the Sycamore rush blocked the punt attempt, giving the Sycamores the ball at the WIU 30-yard line. It took just four plays for Johnson to find Ryan King on an eight-yard touchdown pass – his third of the day – to move ISU out to a 28-17 lead heading into halftime.

Western Illinois came out of the locker room fired up as they marched down the field to open the third stanza and pushed it across when Lansford scored from two yards out to move the Leathernecks within four points at 28-24 with just over 12 minutes left in the third.

The Leathernecks inched closer to the Sycamores when Langan came back to nail his second field goal of the day, this one a 33-yarder with 5:26 left in the third quarter to move WIU closer, still behind ISU at 28-27.

The next score was forced by the Western Illinois defense when Lee Russell forced a Kris Karagory fumble and Wyatt Green took the fumble back 22 yards for a touchdown to move WIU up 34-28 at the end of the third quarter.

ISU received a golden opportunity when WIU fumbled a punt return and King pounced on the ball at the Leatherneck 22 yard line, giving the Sycamores a short field and down only six points. ISU’s Kyle Hooper was unable to connect on a 36 yard field goal attempt as it sailed wide right to end the ISU threat.

Neither team scored the rest of the way as the Sycamores had the ball with just a minute to go starting from deep inside their own territory, but a Johnson interception with 28 seconds left sealed the Sycamores fate, a 34-28 loss to Western Illinois

For the game, Johnson completed 13 of 29 passes for 180 yards and three touchdowns. It was the first time a Sycamore threw for three scores since Julian Reese did at SMS in 2001. Leading the way on the ground was Sidney Montfort who rushed 23 times for 83 yards. Johnson added the other score when he scored his rushing touchdown, his third of the season.

Ryan King led all Sycamore receivers with six catches for 41 yards and his third score of the year, while Scott Panicky had two catches for 80 yards, including a 75-yard strike in the second quarter to give ISU the first half lead.

Scoring Summary:

1st 12:38 ISU - Johnson, P. 1 yd run (Hooper, K. kick), 7-71 2:22, WIU 0 - ISU 7

07:43 WIU - GLASFORD,Travis 1 yd run (LANGAN,Justin kick), 10-63 4:47, WIU 7 - ISU 7

00:52 WIU - MOORE,Randall 2 yd pass from MICHNA,Russ (LANGAN,Justin kick), 9-64 3:44, WIU 14 - ISU 7

00:00 ISU - Penick, S. 75 yd pass from Johnson, P. (Hooper, K. kick), 2-80 0:49, WIU 14 - ISU 14

2nd 13:38 WIU - LANGAN,Justin 51 yd field goal, 6-23 1:05, WIU 17 - ISU 14

05:57 ISU - Logan, S. 27 yd pass from Johnson, P. (Hooper, K. kick), 5-52 3:08, WIU 17 - ISU 21

01:48 ISU - King, R. 8 yd pass from Johnson, P. (Hooper, K. kick), 4-30 1:44, WIU 17 - ISU 28

3rd 12:15 WIU - GLASFORD,Travis 2 yd run (LANGAN,Justin kick), 7-57 2:39, WIU 24 - ISU 28

05:26 WIU - LANGAN,Justin 33 yd field goal, 14-77 3:37, WIU 27 - ISU 28

01:57 WIU - GREEN,Wyatt 22 yd fumble recovery (LANGAN,Justin kick), WIU 34 - ISU 28

The Sycamores will close out the regular season next Saturday, Nov. 15 when they travel to Illinois State for a showdown with the Redbirds. Kickoff is set for 1:30 p.m., CST / 2:30 p.m., EST. USA-365.com provides live Internet audio streaming with Brian Fritz providing the play-by-play and Ben Wagner with the color commentary. The pre-game show starts at 1:10 p.m., CST / 2:10 p.m., EST on www.USA-365.com.

New to USA-365.com this season is a special audio archive of the previous Indiana State University Football game. MP3 audio file downloads are updated each week and are now free at ISU Football MP3 Audio Archives.

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