July 30, 2007
NORMAL, Ill. -
Illinois State's 24 unanswered first-half points secured a 37-20 victory at Hofstra in the 1999 NCAA Playoffs and that performance has been selected as the fourth-most memorable Redbird football game in Redbird All-Access' countdown of the best televised games in recent history. The entire telecast of the game will be available at 1 p.m. Monday on Redbird All-Access.
After notching the school's first postseason win a week prior, with a 56-13 rout of Colgate at Hancock Stadium, the No. 5-ranked Redbirds traveled to Hempstead, N.Y., to face No. 4 Hofstra. The Pride jumped out to a 7-0 lead, but the Redbirds rattled off 24 straight points, including three touchdowns in the second quarter. Willie Watts rushed for a pair of touchdowns, while Dusty Burk completed a 6-yard pass to Steve Kostro for another. Jake Strader also added a 32-yard field goal with 3:15 left in the first quarter.
Burk ended the first half with unbelievable numbers, passing for 302 yards on 23-for-27 passing in the game's first 30 minutes. He finished the game completing 31 of his 37 attempts, which is still the best completion percentage in Redbird history.
Hofstra's Gino Carmazzi tried to bring the Pride back with a pair of touchdown passes in the second half, but each time the `Birds responded. Ryan Spielman completed a 6-yard touchdown pass to Tom Bardwell at the 7:23 mark in the third quarter and Burk and Kostro connected again for 34 yards with 12 seconds remaining in the third.
A scoreless fourth quarter earned the Redbirds a trip to the semifinals against Georgia Southern in Statesboro, Ga. Current Detroit Lion Aveion Cason led the Redbirds with 59 yards rushing, while Rickey Garrett led all ISU receivers with seven catches for 90 yards. Darek Smith led the 'Birds with 16 tackles.
The weekly countdown of the most memorable televised games will continue each week through Aug. 20 on GoRedbirds.com. Each week's game will be announced on Monday morning, with the webcast of the game available later that same day on Redbird All-Access, the premium multimedia service of Illinois State Athletics' official web site.
In conjunction with the countdown of memorable Redbird football games, a discount of 25 percent off an annual subscription to Redbird All-Access is being offered. Redbird All-Access provides ISU fans and alums with hundreds of hours of video including live webcasts of football, volleyball, soccer, men's basketball, women's basketball, baseball and softball. There is also access to game-day features, season highlights, exclusive interviews and classic games.
