By WJBC Staff
NORMAL – A 24-point first half offensive output was more than enough for No. 8 ranked Illinois State Saturday night against Indiana State, as the Redbirds (4-0, 2-0 MVFC) secured a 24-13 win over the Sycamores (0-4, 0-1 MVFC) in front of a sellout crowd at Hancock Stadium.
Touchdown connections of 54 yards and 77 yards from Jake Kolbe to Christian Gibbs staked the Redbirds to a 24-0 lead at the half and the staunch Redbird defense held the Sycamores to just 13 points in the third quarter to come away with the victory. For the second week in a row, Kolbe surpassed the 300-yard passing mark with a career-best 345 yards passing with the two touchdowns to Gibbs, who finished the game with a career-high 189 yards on just five receptions.
The Redbird defense recorded 10 tackles-for-loss and limited the Sycamores to just 197 yards of total offense in the contest. Tyree Horton led the way with eight tackles and Decxavier Kelly-Martin finished with a career-high seven stops and 1.5 tackles-for-loss. Defensive end Tuvone Clark had another solid effort with five tackles and a 1.5 sacks and Adam Conley added a sack and two tackles-for-loss for the ‘Birds.
PODCAST: Listen here to the postgame interviews with coach Brock Spack and players.
After stopping Indiana State on its initial drive of the game, the Redbirds drove 59 yards in seven plays on their first possession and Sean Slattery capped off the drive with a 44-yard field goal to give the Redbirds an early 3-0 lead. Late in the first quarter, the Redbirds turned the ball over on downs and the Sycamores took over at their own eight yard line. After losing two yards on first down, quarterback Cade Sparks dropped back on second down and was sacked in the endzone by James Graham and the football came loose with Conley recovering the ball in the endzone for the touchdown. Slattery’s extra point made it 10-0 in favor of Illinois State as the game moved into the second quarter.
On the Redbirds’ first possession of the second quarter, Kolbe needed just three plays before finding Gibbs running away from his defender on the far sideline for the 54-yard touchdown to extend the Redbird lead to 17-0 midway through the quarter. After another stop by the defense, the Illinois State offense took over at its own 23 yard line and Kolbe immediately found Gibbs this time for a 77-yard scoring bomb to make it 24-0 just before halftime.
The Redbird offense struggled in the second half and Indiana State’s defense came up big early in the third quarter, as Mehki Ware picked off Kolbe and returned the interception 47 yards for the touchdown. After the extra point miss, the score was 24-6 in favor of the Redbirds who went three-and-out on their next offensive possession. The Sycamores then drove 60 yards in nine plays as Cade Sparks found Michael Thomas in the end zone for the touchdown to cut the deficit to two scores at 24-13.
Neither team was able to do much offensively in the fourth quarter, with the Redbirds fumbling and punting three times in the quarter and the Sycamores throwing an interception to Davontae Harris and turning the ball over on downs late in the game to secure the Redbird victory.
Illinois State returns to action next Saturday, when it travels to Flagstaff, Arizona, to face Northern Arizona in a non-conference matchup. Kickoff is slated for 6 p.m. CT and the game can be heard on WJBC, GoRedbirds.com or the TuneIn App. The game will also be broadcast by NAU on Pluto.TV.
