Field Level Media
Dec 20, 2019
Dustin Crum racked up 436 total yards and three touchdowns, including the game-clinching 4-yard run with 1:56 to play, as Kent State beat Utah State 51-41 on Friday in the Tropical Smoothie Cafe Frisco Bowl in the north Dallas suburbs.
Crum passed for 289 yards and two scores and rushed for a career-high 147 yards and a touchdown on 23 carries. The win was the first ever in a bowl game for the Golden Flashes (7-6).
Jordan Love, a junior who has already declared for the NFL draft, threw for 317 yards and three touchdowns for Utah State (7-6) in the loss. He set team records in the game for career total offense and rushing yards for a quarterback.
Kent State trailed 27-26 entering the fourth quarter but a 4-yard TD run by Will Matthews with 13:31 to play gave them the lead.
Utah State's Deven Thompkins then roared 57 yards for a touchdown to tie the game at 34.
Antwan Dixon scored on a 1-yard reception at the 9:36 mark of the fourth quarter to push Kent State back in front. Then Matthew Trickett's team-record fifth field goal of the game made it 44-34 with 4:56 to play.
But the Aggies responded via Love's 11-yard TD pass to Siaosi Mariner nearly two minutes later.
Utah State struck first on a 4-yard TD run by Gerold Bright. The Golden Flashes responded with 17 straight points, including a 78-yard scoring pass from Crum to Isaiah McKoy, a 2-yard scoring run by Xavier Williams, and a 40-yard field goal from Trickett.
The Aggies cut the Kent State advantage to 17-10 with Dominik Eberle's 41-yard FG and tied the game on Love's 25-yard touchdown throw to Mariner with 8:24 left in the second quarter.
Kent State retook the lead on Trickett's 22-yard field goal. He added a third 3-pointer in the half on the final snap, from 36 yards out, to grant Kent State a 23-17 lead at halftime.
Trickett's fourth field goal, a 29-yarder, expanded the Kent State lead to 26-17. The Aggies answered with a 17-yard TD from Love to Thompkins that cut the advantage to 26-24 with 7:52 to play in the third quarter.
Utah State took the lead with a 45-yard field goal by Eberle with 2:27 to play in the third quarter.
--Field Level Media