Valpo Drops Nonconference Finale at Indiana State
The Valparaiso University football team closed out the nonconference portion of the season with a 39-16 loss to Missouri Valley Football Conference foe Indiana State on Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium in Terre Haute, Ind. The game was delayed by 1 hours, 15 minutes due to lightning early in the third quarter before being played to its completion.
How It Happened
- After Valpo punted on its first drive, Indiana State received good field position from nearly midfield, but the Valpo defense kept the Sycamores out of the end zone as the hosts settled for three points on a 36-yard field goal by Sebastian Lopez.
- Quarterback Rowan Keefe (Park Ridge, Ill. / Maine South) completed six straight pass attempts on the ensuing possession, including a 16 yarder to Micah Mackay (Zionsville, Ind. / Lutheran). The longest play of the drive was an 18-yard run by Ashton Allen (New Albany, Ohio / New Albany). Valpo couldn’t convert a third-and-1 from the 11, and Luke Scoma (Bellevue, Wash. / Bellevue) nailed a 30-yard field goal to tie the game.
- The Valpo secondary came up with consecutive impressive pass breakups on the next possession, with Nic Lendino (Naperville, Ill. / Neuqua Valley) and O.C. Nurse (Dumfries, Va. / Forest Park [Marietta]) both turning away Sycamore heaves and forcing a punt.
- The punt was a 45 yarder that backed the Beacons up to their own 3-yard line. That possession resulted in a safety as Valpo was flagged for holding in the endzone, giving Indiana State a 5-3 lead with 2:45 left in the first.
- After the free kick, Indiana State got backed up after being called for a holding infraction of its own. Valpo forced a punt, and the Beacon special teams unit came through again, as Nick Beidl (Carmel, Ind. / Carmel) blocked the punt and Valpo started its drive in Indiana State territory. However, Valpo went three-and-out on that drive and punted it back to Indiana State early in the second.
- A 63-yard reception helped Indiana State work the ball into the red zone, but the Valpo defense didn’t break, as the hosts once again settled for a field goal, this time from 28 yards out to make it 8-3.
- Indiana State stretched the lead to 15-3 when QB Elijah Owens completed a 19-yard pass to Jaylan Johnson for a touchdown with 5:45 left in the second quarter. Valpo was forced to punt, then the Sycamores had a big play on the first snap of their next drive, as RB Aaron Ball went 59 yards for a touchdown to stretch the gap to 19 at 22-3. That was the halftime score.
- After the halftime break, Valpo kicked off and Indiana State ran two offensive plays before lightning was detected in the area, creating a 30-minute delay. They waited the full 30 minutes and the teams took the field for a four-minute warmup period, but with one minute remaining on the warm-up clock, lightning was detected in the area again, and the game went on another 30-minute delay.
- When play finally resumed, the first Indiana State drive of the second half resulted in an interception by Nic Lendino (Naperville, Ill. / Neuqua Valley) in the end zone, Valpo’s first takeaway of the day.
- Valpo went three-and-out on the ensuing drive, then on Indiana State’s next offensive snap Ball broke off his second big TD run of the day, this one from 58 yards to make it 29-3.
- Redshirt junior Marty O’Keeffe (Orland Park, Ill. / Brother Rice) hauled in three catches on the next Valpo offensive drive, including a 28-yard grab that moved it into the red zone. The Beacons took full advantage as Keefe twirled an 11-yard TD strike to Chris Gundy (Smithfield, Va. / Smithfield) for the team’s first TD of the day, cutting the lead to 29-10 with 7:01 left in the third.
- Indiana State’s next drive finished with a 16-yard touchdown pass to make it 36-10, which was the score through three quarters. Early in the fourth, a 46-yard field goal made it 32-10.
- Later in the fourth, Micah Markley (West Chester, Ohio / Lakota West) had a stop to force a turnover on downs, and Valpo capitalized when QB Noah Ehrlich (Crown Point, Ind. / Crown Point [Miami]) delivered a 32-yard pass to Daniel White (Country Club Hills, Ill. / Brother Rice) for the score to make it 39-16, which stood as the final.
Inside the Game
- The Beacons continued to pile up blocked kicks, as the team that already led the Division-I nation (FBS and FCS) outright with four entering Saturday notched its fifth blocked kick in just three games this year. Valpo is already only one block away from moving into a tie for fourth in program history for blocked kicks in a single season.
- Lendino’s interception was his first of the season and the fifth of his collegiate career.
- Senior Mark Johnson (Nashville, Tenn. / Lipscomb Academy) racked up a career-high 11 tackles including nine solos. This was his second straight double-figure tackle output after 10 last week at Murray State.
- Junior Jason Salman (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Thomas Jefferson [Marietta]) picked up seven tackles, while redshirt junior Max Samuel (Edina, Minn. / Edina) had six including a tackle for loss plus a pair of QB hurries. Kaiser Wilhelm (Mason, Ohio / William Mason) and Wyatt Little (Fort Wayne, Ind. / Homestead) accounted for six stops apiece as well.
- O’Keeffe led the team in receiving yards with 56 on four catches, while Gundy had a team-high five grabs for 34 yards. His TD catch was his first of the season and the fourth of his career, exactly one in each of the last four seasons.
- White’s TD catch was his first in a Valpo uniform after he had one last season while playing for Carroll.
- Scoma made his only field-goal try of the day to improve to 3-for-5 on the season with one make in each game.
- Keefe went 21-of-30 through the air for 162 yards. He set a career high in completions for the second straight week.
- As a team Valpo passed for 218 yards but rushed for -7, while Indiana State gained 313 yards on the ground and 255 through the air.
- Valpo has lost 14 consecutive game-opening coin flips, losing the toss again on Saturday.
- Once fellow charter members of the Indiana Collegiate Conference, Valpo and Indiana State hadn’t met on the gridiron since 1968 prior to Saturday.
Up Next
Valpo (1-2) will return home to host rival Butler in the Pioneer Football League opener as part of Homecoming and Family Weekend at Brown Field. The game will kick off at 1 p.m. CT
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