BOISE, Idaho – The Rams scored early, but the Vandals scored often as Idaho scored 41 unanswered over the second and third quarters in a dominant, 61-50 win over Colorado State at the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl on Thursday night.

Quarterback Matt Linehan was voted Most Valuable Player after throwing for 381 yards on 21 of 31 passing. He mixed passes to eight players with senior Deon Watson pulling in five for 140 yards and one touchdown. Jacob Sannon scored on two of his four receptions. Isaiah Saunders carried the ball 33 times for 147 yards and scored three touchdowns.

The Vandals finished the season 9-4 - their best since the 1998 Humanitarian Bowl Championship team was 9-3. One of the reasons, coach Paul Petrino said, was the players believed in themselves despite more often than not being the underdog.

"We were an underdog for everybody else in the country, but we weren't an underdog in our locker room," he said. "In our locker room, we expected to win. We expect to go out there and play hard. We respected them, don't get me wrong. We think they're a really good football team. We respected them, worked harder."

They were rewarded for their hard with a championship trophy, which enabled them to send their 20 seniors off on a winning note.

"I just couldn't say how proud I am of our players," he said. "I'm proud of the way they conducted themselves all week. I thought they knew what this was all about. They had fun when we went bowling, they had fun up on the mountain. Other than that, they were focused on winning the football game. I think that helped them come out and play really well early.

"They just showed character all year. They're just a bunch of winners. They've been told a whole bunch of things that they're not supposed to be able to do but they do it anyway."

The first quarter was a defensive tussle with neither team making much headway. Senior Jayshawn Jordan was a big part of Idaho's defensive effort with five tackles in the period and an interception – his sixth of the season and the 14^th for his career. He took over sole possession of third place on Idaho's all-time interceptions list.
 
The Rams scored quickly to start the second quarter when Nick Stevens and Olabis Johnson hooked up for a 52-yard scoring pass. With the PAT kick, they led 7-0 with 14:35 left in the first half.
 
Idaho responded quickly with a 36-yard pass play between Deon Watson and Matt Linehan sandwiching Isaiah Saunders' runs. Saunders, after Watson gave Idaho the ball on the CSU, scored from the two with 12:03 left in the second. However, Austin Rehkow missed the PAT – his first miss since Sept. 12, 2015 when he failed to connect on his only try at USC. He had made 72 straight.
 
The defense recorded another three-and-out and Idaho took over on its own 38. Linehan first went to Onunwor for a 36-yard pickup before Saunders broke through the middle of the line before scampering 26 yards for his second TD of the game for the 13-7 Vandal lead with 9:59 left in the second quarter.
 
Idaho went up 20-7 as Linehan engineered an 85-yard drive with a blend of passes – primarily to tight ends Buck Cowan and Deon Watson. But it was junior Jacob Sannon who caught the six-yard scoring pass with 24 seconds left in the half to cap the drive that consumed six minutes and 44 seconds.
 
Linehan was the ballcarrier that gave the Vandals a 27-7 lead when he saw a wide open lane and scored from seven yards to cap a nine-play 69-yard drive. It didn't take long for Idaho to enhance that lead. After a CSU punt, the Vandals took over on their own 21. A defensive offsides penalty advanced them five yards then Linehan found Watson on the right sideline and Watson raced 74 yards to score.
 
The reception gave the Vandals a 34-7 lead and also a couple spots in the Potato Bowl record books. It was the third longest pass in bowl history and second longest scoring touchdown in 20 years.
 
The teams traded punts but the Vandals' had a happier end when the Rams fumbled Rehkow's punt and Kendrick Trotter recovered on the CSU 19. Three plays later and Sannon was pulling in Linehan's 16-yard scoring pass for the 41-7 lead with 3:16 to go in the game.
 
Colorado State scored with 1:43 left in the third but the Vandals came back again on Aaron Duckworth's five-yard run. He set up his own score with a 42-yard run as Idaho took a 48-14 lead with 12:56 left in the game.

Jordan Frysinger and Linehan connected on a 54-yard TD with 9:27 to play to set a Potato Bowl record 55 points. The Vandals broke the record of 52 points by Georgia Tech in 2003.

The teams traded touchdowns in the fourth quarter, as the icy turf led to many defenders on both teams slipping and sliding on the field.

Check back with GoVandals.com shortly for more stats and reactions from the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.