Herb Donaldson continued his recent mastery against Missouri State on Saturday as the senior running back rushed a career-high 41 times for 273 yards and four touchdowns to lead No. 21 Western Illinois to a 33-21 Missouri Valley Football Conference victory over the Bears at Plaster Field.
It was the first win in Springfield for the Fighting Leathernecks since the 2002 season as Western Illinois improved to 3-2 on the season and 1-1 in the MVFC.
In last year's 31-10 victory over MSU at Hanson Field, Donaldson ran for 314 yards and two touchdowns as the Leathernecks racked up over 500 yards of total offense. Saturday was more of the same as the Walter Payton Award candidate ran for his fifth career 200-yard game to move him within one of Aaron Stecker's all-time school best of six.
Back-up running back Dre Gibbs had a big day as well as the junior ran for 126 yards including a 41-yard touchdown gallop as the Leathernecks finished the game with 459 yards rushing on 61 carries.
"We always want to establish the run," said Western Illinois acting head coach Mark Hendrickson. "It is very important for us to consistently line up and gain positive yards. Our offensive line, along with the tight ends and fullbacks accomplished that today. It was very easy for us to focus on today's game because we needed our first conference win."
The Leathernecks never trailed in the game as Donaldson got Western Illinois on the scoreboard with a 15-yard touchdown run at the 4:58 mark of the opening quarter. Taylor Rowan added the PAT to give Western a 7-0 lead. The drive was set up by linebacker Jason Williams' forced fumble by MSU's Chase Mejia that was recovered by Mike McEachern at the MSU 24. The play enabled Williams to become the school's all-time leader in that category.
MSU (1-3, 0-1) would answer with a drive that would eventually lead up to a first-and-goal at the Western Illinois 10-yard line. But, on third down at the four, Bears quarterback Cody Kirby was intercepted in the end zone by Tim Franken, the freshman's third pick of the season, for a touchback.
On the ensuing drive, the Leathernecks would go 80 yards in nine plays and Donaldson capped the drive with a 38-yard touchdown run with 12:11 remaining in the first half. But, Rowan's PAT was blocked to keep the score at 13-0. Western Illinois increased its advantage to 20-0 with 3:21 to go in the first half when Gibbs broke loose for his 41-yard touchdown run. That's the way the first half would end as the Leathernecks out-gained MSU 218-95 on the ground.
Following a Western Illinois punt on its first possession of the second half, MSU struck quickly to get on the board as Kirby hit Justin Fuselier on a short pass and Fuselier spun away from Stephen Moore and scampered 67 yards for a touchdown with 12:31 left in the third quarter to make it a 20-7 score.
It appeared the Leathernecks were going to answer on their next series, but Carl Sims hauled in a Matt Barr pass before fumbling at the goal line to turn the ball over on a touchback. MSU capitalized by mounting an 80-yard drive that was capped by a Kirby to Brandon Oliver six-yard touchdown toss with 3:06 to go in the quarter to cut the deficit to 20-14.
MSU kept Western Illinois from adding to its lead when Chris Farrar blocked a Rowan 21-yard field goal attempt early in the fourth quarter to take over at the MSU 12. But, the Leatherneck defense would hold and Western would get the ball back at its own 43 with 11:50 left. Donaldson carried the ball five times on the drive and scored his third touchdown of the afternoon on a four-yard run with 7:34 remaining. Gibbs was stopped short of the goal line on the two-point conversion attempt to keep the score at 26-14. The Bears were stopped on downs a short time later at their own 40 and Western Illinois would put the game out of reach on Donaldson's four-yard touchdown at the 1:39 mark to make it 33-14. Oliver returned the kickoff 60 yards to the Western 40 and MSU made quick work to get into the end zone as Kirby hit Chris Geisz on a 24-yard completion and found Geisz again for a 16-yard touchdown with just 1:05 to go to make the score 33-21. MSU attempted an onside kick, but it went out of bounds to give the Leathernecks the ball and Barr took a knee twice to run out the clock.
Western Illinois finished with 520 yards of total offense with 469 yards on he ground. Barr was just 7-of-14 passing for 61 yards, but he also rushed for 69 yards on seven carries. MSU had 352 yards of total offense, but only 106 yards rushing by the Leatherneck defense.
"We weren't exactly complacent coming out of the locker room, but we didn't do a good job of keeping the momentum," said Hendrickson. "We have to credit Missouri State for preventing us from doing that. We gave up some big plays in the second half, but we responded well as an entire team. We anticipated throwing the ball much more. We had a balanced plan of attack, but fairly early we abandoned that for plan B."
The Leathernecks travel to Fargo, N.D., next weekend to take on North Dakota State in another MVFC battle.