A Dominate Defensive Performance Boosts Illinois State to Victory Over Murray State

Image courtesy of Illinois State athletics

NORMAL, Ill. — Illinois State football moves to 7-2 for the first time since 2015 after a 21-point second half soared them to a 35-14 win over Murray State.

ISU led by a score going into the final 15 minutes, but two turnovers from the Redbird defense put the Birds in the driver seat for their second win in-a-row.

“Congratulations to our team, it was a hard fought win,” head coach Brock Spack said. “Nothing comes easy in the Missouri Valley and we don’t expect that. Murray State is a good football team and I told their coach after the game that ‘The score doesn’t reflect how you guys played’.”

The first touchdown drive of the game for ISU was set up by a 67-yard dot from Beckham Pellant to Ethan Loss, the receivers longest catch in the red and white.

Victor Dawson went on to run the ball in the endzone after breaking two tackles for an 11-yard rush to make it 7-0.

The Redbirds held the Racers to zero points for the first 15 minutes of action but they tied it on their first drive of the second quarter.

After running a fast-paced offense, Jawaun Northington rushed the ball up the middle and took it to the house for a 42-yard touchdown.

The running back had 72 yards on the day, averaged just over 10 yards per carry and secured Murray’s only rushing touchdown of the campaign.

The majority of the remaining time of the first half was slow for ISU’s offense. The worst-ranked defense in the Missouri Valley Football Conference limited the second-most efficient offense to just one score, until Seth Glatz stepped onto the field.

ISU had one yard to gain in order to find the endzone and Pellant handed the ball over to Glatz for another rushing touchdown.

Glatz ended the campaign with 67 yards on 17 carries, his best performance of the season.

Both Dawson and Glatz have been dealing with injuries that limited their participation for weeks, but the tailbacks looked to be 100 percent in week nine.

“He [Dawson] played more like Victor Dawson today,” Spack said. “He’s a hard worker, he doesn’t want to be banged up but he wasn’t feeling well. Today was probably his best day in about a month and I thought he played pretty well. I also thought Glatz played well too. He had some nice runs and did some good things. He’s had a neck issue that was giving him problems but he seems to be better, they both seem to be better.”

Despite a strong rush game, Pellant struggled connecting with his receivers.

Murray’s secondary had everyone covered downfield and Pellant found Dylan Lord only once during the first half.

“They’re [Murray] physical like typical Missouri Valley players,” Spack said. “We were having a tough time getting off some of their looks. When they played man free it was interesting and it impressed us a little bit. They do a lot on defense and we had to ID that, once we got settled down in the second half I think we were a little bit better.”

Leading 14-7 with a minute left on the clock and three timeouts, ISU hoped to find the endzone one more time before heading back to the locker room but Pellant’s slow start in the throwing column continued.

He seemed to try and throw the ball away as no player in white was downfield, but threw it directly into the hands of Murray’s safety Dylan Rowsey.

The turnover was Pellant’s fifth interception of the season and third in the last two games.

“They did a good job covering our receivers,” Spack said. “I think he was trying to throw it away, maybe he was under a little pressure but he knows better than to throw it there. I wasn’t too happy about that because we all looked like fools but it’s part of football and that’s what good defenses do.”

A subpar first half was not going to sustain for the final 30 minutes and ISU turned it around in the second half, led by the defense.

The Redbird defense forced another three-and-out for Murray and a poor punt from Victor Kyatt set ISU’s offense up for success at the 50-yard line.

It only took one play from the Birds to make it 21-7 and Pellant once again went deep to Ethan Loss to find the red paint off a flea-flicker play from Dawson.

The score marked the Butler transfer’s first touchdown as a Redbird.

Loss ended the day with 117 yards on two catches, making up nearly half of Pellant’s total yards.

“We knew there were going to be opportunities and Beckham did a great job of trusting me,” Loss said. “I was excited for that one [flea-flicker play] once I saw the call come in.”

The Racers finally caught ISUs defense off guard for a second time on the following drive.

Northington ran 29 yards on three carries in-a-row and Baxter Wright’s throws were like glue to his receivers.

A 19-yard catch by Jaxon Potter on a 2nd-and-six scenario made way for Wright to find Trey Firestone in the endzone two plays later for a six-yard touchdown.

Down 21-14 with a quarter left to play, the Racers had the chance for one of the biggest upsets of the season but Dylan Lord finally found his breakthrough moment.

ISU faced a 3rd-and-five at Murray’s five-yard line, but Pellant found Lord in the middle of the endzone with 10:42 left on the clock.

Murray attempted to return the favor on its next drive as Collin Shannon tried to send it deep to Firestone, but Rico Clay’s ball tracking was on display and the corner snagged it from the receiver and returned it for 37 yards.

“It’s just really exciting that I can have my coaches trust me,” Clay said. “Knowing that when the coaches call a play I can go out there and execute it.”

“Rico is long and athletic and he did a really nice job out there,” Spack said. “We were down to our number four and five at the corner. I told you we had good depth and I hate when it’s tested, but it happens in Division I football… He’s really smart, a really intelligent play by him.”

The turnover led to another ISU score with Victor Dawson finding the endzone for the second time and the game’s final time.

The running back picked up 99 yards on 22 carries, his most amount of yards all season.

ISU had the win almost locked down but the dagger came with 3:58 left in the game. After an interception by Travis Jones was overturned, Tye Niekamp redeemed the defense on the next play and secured an interception of his own.

He threw a lateral to Jordan Coleman for a pickup of 18 yards and ISU milked the clock on the next drive, securing the victory.

“We’re rushing the pass really well,” Niekamp said. “We’re getting in their face, we’re getting them off the platform, we’re just making plays and it’s putting us in great positions right now…Travis definitely caught that ball I thought, but he didn’t. We go back out there and ball doesn’t lie so it worked out pretty well.”

ISU now has its eyes set for a gauntlet of two weeks on the road, starting with a trip to Grand Forks for a 1 p.m. battle on Nov. 7 against North Dakota followed by a battle against the Penguins of Youngstown.

For all things Redbird football, stay tuned on wznd.com.