YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Illinois State's Matt Brown and Youngstown State's Brandon Summers both threw for over 300 yards, but Summers' two second-half touchdowns lifted the Penguins to a 30-18 win at Stambaugh Stadium Saturday afternoon.
Brown completed 32 passes for a career-best 328 yards, but it wasn't enough to lift the Redbirds (5-5, 4-3 MVFC) over the second-best passing performance of Summers' career. Summers threw for 346 yards - one shy of his career-high 347 against the Redbirds last season - and connected with Dominique Barnes and Donald Jones for touchdowns in the game's final 20 minutes to rally the Penguins (5-5, 3-4 MVFC) from a halftime deficit.
Brown threw for 77 yards on the Redbirds' final drive of the game, a last ditch effort to put points on the board that stopped at the goal line as time expired. Brown surpassed Kevin Glenn's (2,265) freshman passing record and has thrown for 2,295 passing yards this season. Eyad Salem caught a team-best eight passes for Illinois State and Cody White posted a career-best six catches for 76 yards. Linebacker Josh Howe led the Redbird defense with a career- and game-high 13 tackles.
The first half was a showcase of special teams play as both units combined for four field goals, Youngstown State recovered an onside kick, and Illinois State blocked a punt. The Penguins opened the game with a pair of field goals by Stephen Blose and held the Redbirds scoreless through the first quarter before Illinois State got on the board with a 41-yard try by Zach Kutch.
Illinois State scored again less than a minute and a half later as Bert Whigham blocked a punt and had it recovered by YSU in the end zone for a safety. The Redbirds nearly had a touchdown on the play, but turned it into a nine-point swing instead following a 50-yard kick return by Ben Ericksen that helped set up a four yard touchdown run by Cliffton Gordon. Youngstown State answered with its own rushing touchdown from Kevin Smith but a career-long 49-yard field goal by Kutch gave the Redbirds a 15-13 advantage at the break.
Summers beat Illinois State's coverage to throw his first touchdown pass 55 yards to Barnes and give the Penguins a 20-15 lead in the third quarter. Youngstown State's defense held the Redbirds without points in the third quarter but Illinois State pulled within two on another field goal from Kutch to begin the fourth. That field goal tied Kutch with Todd Kurz's school record of 19 field goals in a single season, set in 1995.
That was as close as the Redbirds would get as Blose added another field goal and Summers connected with Jones to push the lead to 30-18. Illinois State had four drives end without points in the fourth quarter - one ended on a fumble by Brown, two ended on downs, and the final drive ended as Casey Cline was stopped short of the goal line as time expired.
Barnes (122) and Jones (105) both finished with more than 100 yards receiving, and Smith rushed for 121.
Illinois State closes out the regular season on Senior Day at Hancock Stadium next Saturday against Northern Iowa.
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