The Vandals pulled of a miraculous comeback victory in the final seconds to continue their undefeated streak at home this season.
Idaho football (4-5, BSC 3-4) brought down North Dakota (5-4) by a score of 31-27 Saturday, overcoming the hardships that have been thrown at the Vandals for the past few weeks.
“It was just a great team win,” Idaho head coach Paul Petrino said. “I told the team I’ve won Cotton Bowls, I’ve won Orange Bowls, but that was as great a win.”
During the opening minutes of the game, it seemed as if the Fighting Hawks were going to be too much to handle for the Idaho offense.
On the opening drive, junior quarterback Mason Petrino suffered a strip sack to give North Dakota early possession inside the 30-yard line.
Right away, the Vandal defense responded, stopping the Hawks on a huge fourth-and-one play to give Idaho back the ball.
Petrino and the rest of the offense regrouped and composed themselves, as the quarterback methodically lead his team to midfield before senior Isaiah Saunders would break out on a 43-yard pitch and run to get the first touchdown of the game.
Saunders finished the game with 96 rushing yards on 17 attempts, pushing him over the hump and now officially a member of the 2,000-yard club.
“I’m just super proud of Isaiah. Great young man and he just played his tail off,” Petrino said.
North Dakota would respond, showing why their rushing game is amongst the best in the FCS, with North Dakota running back Brady Oliveira splitting out for a 68-yard run for a score to tie things up at seven apiece in the first quarter.
Late in the first quarter, Petrino scrambled outside of the pocket to find junior wide receiver Jeff Cotton for a 32-yard heave to get into Hawks territory.
A roughing the passer penalty on the same play put the Idaho offense inside the five where Petrino found senior wide receiver David Ungerer for another touchdown.
The Hawks answered again midway through the second to tie the game at 14.
An offensive stalemate followed between the two teams before the game came back to life in the fourth quarter.
With Idaho down 27-17 with 12 minutes left in the fourth quarter, perseverance became the identity for this Idaho team.
“It kind of went back and forth,” Paul said. “We felt good about a couple times in the fourth quarter.”
The comeback began with a huge third down sack by Idaho senior defensive end DJ Henderson to force North Dakota to punt.
“Coach P (Petrino) always tells you be that spark, make that play to turn it around,” Henderson said. “I felt like I was the spark.”
After the spark was lit, Vandal special teams blew the game up for Idaho.
Idaho sophomore free safety Jalen Hoover would block the North Dakota punt, giving freshman tight end Connor Whitney the window to scoop the football to dash into the endzone for a touchdown to make the score 24-27 with eight minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
“I went up to coach after the first one and told coach, ‘Hey I can block this,’” Hoover said. “They were blocking down so I knew there was going to be a short edge so it can be unlimited speed to come around, and I told coach I got it.”
With just under three minutes remaining in the game, the Vandal offense had one last shot to go down the field and win the game.
“I don’t know where to start,” Mason Petrino said about the drive. “The linemen and skill players in that huddle knew that we were going to go get this done.”
The Vandals faced fourth down with six yards to go. With trouble in the pocket, Petrino scrambled out left to find Ungerer for the first down.
The Petrino-Ungerer connection continued for the next few plays, until Idaho found themselves with a first and goal inside the 10-yard line.
Two plays later, Petrino found the end zone again, this time connecting with Cotton in the corner of the endzone for the game winning touchdown.
“We called it in the huddle, and it really wasn’t the guy I was supposed to go to, but he was one on one,” Mason said. “They brought the safety down and put him on the line and that was just disrespectful.”
The monumental victory Saturday brought the Vandals to 4-0 on the year in the Kibbie Dome, showing that the enchantment in the Kibbie continues for Idaho.
“Let’s keep that magic,” Paul said. “A bunch of guys played hard. The Mason haters get to take tonight off, he played his tail off.”
Mason Petrino finished the night throwing for 277 yards and two touchdowns on 50 passing attempts — the most in his career.
“I’m very disappointed,” North Dakota Head Coach Bubba Schweigert said. “We have to be able to close teams out.”
Idaho will look to continue the momentum going into its final homestand of the season next week, with the hope to finish the season with a perfect record at home.
“We haven’t really handled adversity well this year,” Mason said. “This is one of the games where you can change your program around and build an identity off of and that’s how we’re going to do it.”
Idaho will take on Montana in the final home game of the season 3:30 p.m. Nov. 10 in the Kibbie Dome.
Chris Deremer can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @Cderemer_VN