Mason Blakemore scored two touchdowns Saturday in Illinois State’s 22-21 loss to North Dakota, which knocked the Redbirds out of playoff contention. (Photo by GoRedbirds.com)
By Barry Bottino
Saturday’s 22-21 loss to North Dakota was an all-too-familiar feeling for Illinois State head coach Brock Spack.
“We should be sitting here with a win, and we’re not,” Spack said. “It’s frustrating. It’s been a frustrating deal for us.”
The loss left Illinois State with a 6-5 overall record, an eighth-place finish in the Missouri Valley Football Conference, a fourth consecutive season without an FCS playoff spot, and most disheartening, four losses this season by a combined eight points.
“The mistakes you make in critical situations, you can’t do it,” said Spack, whose team finished 4-4 in league play. “We could easily be sitting here 10-1 instead of 6-5. But we’re not.”
Saturday’s frustrations centered mainly around special teams. The Redbirds missed a field goal, missed an extra point due to a bad snap and had another extra-point blocked.
The miscues left ISU chasing points for more than 34 minutes of game time, until a 13-yard Mason Blakemore scoring run – his second of the day — with 4:53 left in the fourth quarter put the Redbirds ahead, 21-16.
North Dakota, led by quarterback Tommy Schuster, put together an 11-play, 76-yard touchdown drive, punctuated by a 1-yard TD run by Gaven Ziebarth with 25 seconds remaining in the game. Schuster accounted for 63 yards on the drive.
Illinois State got two first downs on its final drive but could not get into field goal range.
“We had a great day. We’ve just got to capitalize in the red zone,” said sophomore quarterback Tommy Rittenhouse, who started for the second week in a row in place of injured starter Zack Annexstad. “We left way too many points on the (field).”
While Blakemore rushed for 101 yards – his fourth 100-plus-yard game in the past five weeks – Rittenhouse calmly guided the ISU offense throughout the day. He finished with 241 passing yards and 66 yards rushing.
The Redbirds outgained 13th-ranked North Dakota, 466-338, as Rittenhouse completed 21 of 33 passes.
“He made some nice throws, did some nice things with his feet and made good decisions with the ball in the run game and the pass game,” Spack said. “Our quarterback, he played good enough to win. We just have to kick the ball better, snap it better and protect better.”
Illinois State came up empty ona 6 minute, 39-second first-quarter drive when Ian Wagner missed a 42-yard field goal wide left. Just over 5 minutes later, Blakemore scored on an 18-yard run but a bad snap led to a missed PAT and a 6-0 lead. UND (7-4, 5-3) followed with 10 unanswered points.
Wagner connected on a 33-yard kick just before halftime to trim the Fighting Hawks’ lead to 10-9.
Schuster threw a third-quarter TD pass for a 16-9 lead. Just over 8 minutes later, Rittenhouse connected with Rylan Crawford on a 5-yard scoring pass to close the lead to 16-15.
“We did a good job balancing the run and pass. I was able to make plays when I needed to,” Rittenhouse said. “We just beat ourselves sometimes. I feel like we did that today on the offensive side. Every point matters. We learned that the hard way this season.”
Game changers
10:55, 4th quarter: Rittenhouse connected with Crawford to complete a 14-play, 81-yard scoring drive that trimmed UND’s lead to 16-15.
4:53, 4th quarter: Blakemore’s second TD, a 13-yard burst off the right side, gave the Redbirds their first lead since the opening quarter.
0:25, 4th quarter: Ziebarth plunged in from the 1-yard line to give his team the lead for good.
What it means
The Redbirds will miss the FCS playoffs for the fourth season in a row and finished in eighth place in the 12-team MVFC standings.
Best Birds
Prairie State Pigskin chooses the top three Illinois State players in the game:
Rittenhouse, QB: The sophomore put together an impressive effort in place of injured starter Zack Annexstad. He was responsible for 307 of ISU’s 466-yard team total.
Blakemore, RB: Along with his two TDs, the junior surpassed the 100-yard rushing mark for the fifth time this season and the fourth time in the past five weeks.
Keondre Jackson, S: His 10 tackles led all players Saturday.
What’s next?
The Redbirds will open the 2024 season Aug. 31 at the University of Iowa.
Barry Bottino is a co-founder of Prairie State Pigskin and a 19-year veteran of three Illinois newspapers. He has covered college athletics since 1995.
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