Stewart, Afari Each Top 100 Yards Rushing in UNC Setback at ISU

Saturday, September 23

Pocatello, Idaho

4 p.m.

University of Northern Colorado

0-4 , 0-1

Idaho State

1-3 , 1-0

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Northern Colo.

Idaho St.

9/24/2023 12:25:00 AM | Football

Box Score

By: Dennis Driscoll, UNC Associate Athletic Director for Strategic Communications

POCATELLO, Idaho – Northern Colorado dropped a back-and-forth affair at Idaho State, 35-21 in the Bear's Big Sky Conference opener.

Darius Stewart put the Bears on the scoreboard first with a 16-yard run at 7:04 in the first quarter.

The Bengals countered with 21 points and went into the halftime with a 21-7 lead.

UNC scored on back-to-back drives in the third quarter. Jacob Sirmon scored on a QB sneak from the ISU one-yard line at the 10:32 mark, and David Afari scored on an 18-yard touchdown run at 5:09 to tie the game at 21-21.

The Bengals scored two late touchdowns to put the contest out of reach.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

The Bears finished with two players over 100 yards rushing: Darius Stewart with a career-high 124 yards and a touchdown, and David Afari finished with 108 yards rushing and one touchdown.
The Bears rushed for a season-high 242 yards as a team and averaged 6.0 yards per attempt.
UNC finished with a season-high 465 yards of total offense.
Blake Haggerty totaled 108 yards receiving, the first Bear to hit the century mark this season.
Jacob Sirmon went 22-for-32 for 223 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions.
The Bears were a perfect 3-for-3 in the red zone.
Tama Tuitele finished with a team-high nine tackles and a .5 tackle for loss.
Nick Norris added six tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss.
As a team, UNC totaled four tackles for loss.

COACH LAMB

"First, must give credit to Idaho State. Their coaching staff did a great job, and their players executed their game plan. Really in all three phases of the game, we need to be more disciplined. We need to be more consistent on both sides of the ball. We saw some good things that we can build upon."

UP NEXT & PURCHASE TICKETS

The Bears return to action on Saturday, September 30, and host Weber State at 1 p.m. It's Latinx Heritage Day and the game is sponsored by Pepsi.