FARGO, N.D. - Eyad Salem tied a school record with 14 catches, including three on Illinois State's final scoring drive, as the Redbirds outlasted North Dakota State, 27-24, to win their first Missouri Valley Conference game in the Fargodome Saturday.
Salem caught a career-high 14 passes to tie former Redbirds Laurent Robinson and Dwayne Smith for the most catches in a single game, but none were more clutch than his three catches on Illinois State's go ahead drive late in the fourth quarter. Salem was one of eight Redbirds to catch a pass from Illinois State (2-3, 1-1 MVFC) quarterback Matt Brown and led all receivers with 172 yards. Brown completed 30-of-42 passes for 320 yards and two touchdowns.
On the final drive, Brown hit Salem over the middle for 14 yards and a critical third down conversion while moving the Redbirds into Bison territory. Brown found Salem on the next two plays before scrambling for 20 yards to set up a first and goal for Illinois State. Geno Blow blasted through the right side of the defense from two yards out to cap the scoring drive and put the `Birds up 27-24 with 1:24 remaining.
North Dakota State (1-4, 0-2 MVFC) attempted a final drive but a personal foul penalty negated a play that would have put the Bison with a first and goal from the nine with a little more than 30 seconds remaining. Instead, the Bison were pushed back to the 50-yardline and eventually attempted a deep pass on fourth down that was batted down.
Brown picked apart the Bison secondary en route to both of his touchdown passes in the first half - a 17-yard strike to Salem and a seven-yard flip to Cliffton Gordon. Illinois State's first points came on a 38-yard field goal from Zach Kutch, his first of two in the game. Brown had 219 yards at the break and helped the Redbirds pile up 282 yards on 42 plays before the break.
Illinois State's defense was equally stout in the opening half, allowing just seven points. The Birds held the nation's leading rusher, Pat Paschall, to 29 yards and limited the Bison to 185 yards of total offense. More than half of that total came on a 95-yard strike from Nick Mertens to Gary Williams - the longest touchdown pass in NDSU history.
North Dakota state evened the gap in the second half as Paschall found more running room. The senior from St. Louis finished the game with 115 yards - his fifth 100-yard rushing game of the season - and found the end zone in the third quarter to pull the Bison within three. Shawn Bibeau's 23-yard field goal tied the contest with 11:06 left in the fourth quarter.
Kutch connected on his second field goal, from 23 yards out, before the Bison took a 24-20 lead on a 14-yard run by Sam Ojuri - their first lead since the Mertens-Williams connection at the beginning of the second quarter.
The Redbirds found one more answer on offense and defense to earn their first win in two meetings with North Dakota State.
Blow led the Redbirds with 52 yards on the ground and Gordon added 45 yards rushing. Freshman Ben Ericksen caught five passes for 26 yards in his first collegiate action and freshman Tyrone Walker caught four passes for 60 yards.
Illinois State will continue its two-game, Missouri Valley Football Conference road swing when the Redbirds travel to Southern Illinois next Saturday (Oct. 10) for a 2 p.m. kickoff with the Salukis.
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