Box Score RUSTON, La. ? Saturday's Western Athletic Conference football game at Louisiana Tech started with great promise for the Idaho Vandals ? but finished like seven others with struggles to move the ball when they had it and an inability to derail the Bulldogs when they were in possession.
The result was a 46-14 loss as the Vandals dropped to 1-8 overall and 0-4 in the WAC.
“We're disappointed,” coach Robb Akey said. “I'm not happy with what happened tonight.”
What happened was the Vandals managed just 239 yards total offense, while yielding 556. It was a far cry from the Vandals' outing just one week ago at Fresno State, when they went toe-to-toe with one of the WAC leaders.
“We're not stepping back,” Akey said. “We didn't play well today. We'll get better. We have to play more consistent.”
The night started with a sizzle when true freshman Kama Bailey's first career touchdown for the first score of the game. Nate Enderle floated a pass to him as he maneuvered behind the defense to pull in it and run untouched into the endzone for the 33-yard score to give the Vandals a 7-0 lead with 12:45 left in the first.
The Bulldogs responded with a score of their own when Ross Jenkins slipped through the middle of the line to score from seven yards out with 8:46 left in the opening quarter. However, the PAT kick missed and Idaho still led ? 7-6.
The Vandals were forced to punt on their next possession then yielded a 38-yard pass from Jenkins to Dennis Morris, followed by a short run by Jenkins after which the Vandals were penalized for a personal foul. Those plays moved the ball to the Idaho 14. Back-to-back runs by Porter moved the ball within inches of the goal line. Louisiana Tech failed on two attempts to punch it through for a TD ? the second try wound up a three-yard tackle-for-loss by Justin Allen to force a field goal attempt. Brad Oestriecher's 21-yarder was good to give the Bulldogs a 9-7 lead with 2:10 left in the first.
Idaho was forced to punt again on its next possession. Louisiana Tech responded with another TD ? this time mixing runs by Porter and Jenkins with a personal foul by the Vandals to advance deep into Idaho territory. R.P. Stuart made it 16-7 with a 14-yard option run with 11:10 remaining in the first half.
Enderle was intercepted to end Idaho's next possession ? and Louisiana Tech capitalized with a six-play, 52-yard drive. Porter scored from inches out and the kick was good for the 23-7 lead with 6:06 to go in the second quarter.
Another Idaho punt led to another Tech TD ? this one took just one play when Phillip Livas romped 72 yards on the first play of the drive to booster the Bulldogs' lead to 30-7 with 4:18 left in the opening half.
Bailey then added his second TD when, after a 44-yard Enderle to Komar pass gave Idaho the ball at the Bulldog 27, Bailey pulled in a pass and scampered in to score with 3:39. Tino Amancio's second PAT cut the lead to 30-14.
Enderle's second interception set up the final score of the half ? a 32-yard Oestriecher field goal to make it 33-14 as time expired in the second quarter.
The Bulldogs tacked on 10 more points in the third quarter with a 17-yard run by Porter and a 24-yard Oestriecher field goal to take a 43-14 lead into the final quarter.
Defensively for the Vandals, Jonathan Faraimo had 15 stops and Justin Allen had 12. For the night, the Vandals had nine tackles for loss with Allen and Aaron Lavarias collecting two each.
