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2007 PSU Football
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Penn State vs. Iowa Recap
Nittany Lions defeat Hawkeyes for First Big Ten Win
Article and Photo By: Mark McConnell
The Nittany Lions flew past the Hawkeyes at Beaver Stadium Saturday on a warmer than normal October day. It was in the high 80’s and sunny when a crowd of 108,951 packed into Beaver Stadium to witness the Nittany Lions first conference win of the season, defeating the Hawkeyes 27 - 7.
With Austin Scott out for violating team rules, Rodney Kinlaw and Evan Royster took over running the ball combining for a total of 254 yards and two touchdowns.
“Scott broke a team rule and I think that’s as much as I’m going to say,” said head Coach Joe Paterno after the game.
Royster played well with 86 yards on 16 carries and nearly punching the ball into the endzone for a touchdown, but was called down at the one and a half yard line. Kinlaw ran for 168 yards on 28 attempts and two touchdowns.
Anthony Morelli led the team to their first win, but not without his share of mistakes. He threw two interceptions and fumbled the ball once. However, the defense played strong and they were able to put up a 3 - 0 lead early.
“I said ‘Anthony, you’ve got to forget about those. You’ve had a heck of a good game, just forget about them,’”said Paterno. “It was 20 - 0 and we should have put that thing away and we got careless.’
Offensivley, J. Christensen went 16 of 29 for 146 with one touchdown for the Hawkeyes. However, it took a late interception by their defense to spark an offensive drive ending in points.
“We knew we wanted to come out and attack and I think we did a great job in the first half, shut them down and made them pretty much change their style of offense to spread it out in the second,” said Dan Connor about the Hawkeyes offense.
Defensively, the Lions held Iowa scoreless until the fourth quarter. Christensen hooked up with Trey Stross for an eleven yard pass putting up the Hawkeyes only points of the day. Connor had nine tackles, three solo and six assisted, with two for a loss and one sack. Sean Lee lead the Lions with 11 tackles, three solo and eight assisted.
Earlier in the week, A. Q. Shipley said to watch out for Iowa’s Mitch King because he was one of the premier defensive linemen in the country. Saturday, King had seven tackles, two sacks, two tackles for a loss and one forced fumble. Mike Humpal lead Iowa with twelve tackles, six solo and six assisted, one for a loss and one forced fumble. Matt Kroul followed with ten tackles, five solo and five assisted.
This win puts the Nittany Lions back on track with an overall record of 4 - 2, 1 - 2 in Big Ten play. Next week they face Wisconsin, who lost to Illinois.
“We haven’t watched the Wisconsin tape yet but I’m sure they’re going to be ready just like we are,” said Derrick Williams. “Especially since they came off a loss today.”
Kickoff is at 3:30pm at Beaver Stadium.