ISU has nightmare day at Missouri State
Oct. 17—Football is a 60-minute game, so the cliché goes, but truthfully, they're often defined by just a few minutes.
That was true in a devastating way for Indiana State on Saturday. The final 5 minutes, 36 seconds of the first half doomed the Sycamores to a 37-7 loss at Missouri State.
More so than the damage on the scoreboard — the Bears scored 21 points in that stretch — was the concern for ISU wide receiver Rontrez Morgan.
The senior appeared to be seriously injured after being hit hard on a kick return with 1:11 left in the first half. He was motionless on the Plaster Stadium turf for several minutes and was eventually taken off the field on a gurney and to an ambulance.
Morgan was taken to Mercy Hospital in Springfield after his injury. After the game, ISU coach Curt Mallory said that Morgan had full movement in all of his extremities. He was to undergo a C-T scan for precautionary reasons.
Later on Saturday, ISU revealed that Morgan's test showed he was fine. He was released from the hospital and returned to Terre Haute.
While there was a positive outcome in the end, at the time of the injury, it was scary for everyone who witnessed it at Plaster Stadium.
Morgan, a Jacksonville, Fla. native who has played for ISU since 2017, is renowned for his work ethic and veteran leadership. His injury was hard to take for the Sycamores who witnessed it.
"It was very emotional, especially for me. I came here with him my freshman year. We've been through all of the ups and downs together," Hendrix said. "I had tears in my eyes out there."
ISU defensive end Inoke Moala is one of the few Sycamores on the roster who has played more than the 28 career games Morgan has played so far.
"It's tough. He puts in extra work and plays hard. It hurt to see him like that," Moala said. "It makes us grateful to be able to play this game. It made us push harder for 'Trez. We wanted to play harder because we know he'd do the same."
Mallory had the unenviable task of trying to find out about the injury so he and the team could know as well as try to keep the Sycamores focused on the game at-hand.
"[The injury] was the first thing we talked about at halftime and also the first thing I said to the team after the game. First and foremost? [Morgan's health] is what matters most. When something like that happens? Your heart stops for a moment. Right now, things are hopefully looking good and we'll pray for good results," Mallory said.
Morgan's injury cast a pall over the proceedings and there was no relief on the football side of things either for the Sycamores.
With 5:36 left, the Bears led 3-0. It was a 50/50 game as neither team could break the other's defense. There were seven punts to that point in the contest.
ISU faced a 4th-and-2 at the MSU 33 and elected to go for it. Michael Haupert's run to the left side was stopped by the Bears after a gain of just a yard.
It was a small crack that eventually broke a dam of bad things for the Sycamores.
First, the Bears finally broke the ISU defense. Mobile Missouri State quarterback Jason Shelley let loose with a 45-yard touchdown pass to Xavier Lane, who beat ISU cornerback J.J. Henderson in single coverage to put the Bears up 10-0.
On the ensuing kickoff, Henderson returned the ball to the 24 and fumbled the ball away. The Bears recovered and scored three plays on a 3-yard Shelley run with 1:18 left to make it 17-0.
Morgan took the next kickoff. He returned it to the 20, but was hit by several Bears, including Steven Ward, who was credited with a forced fumble. The ball was recovered by Missouri State's Nick Hessefort.
After the hit, Morgan was on the bottom of a collision of several players. Missouri State's Ron Tiavusse and Joe Lemondre, along with ISU's Jalen Moss, had all converged on Morgan, who unbeknownst to any of them, was prone on the ground.
Morgan was tended to for several minutes and was lifted on to a gurney with assistance from a backboard. Before he was wheeled off the field, he did demonstrate some motion in his hands.
ISU's entire team surrounded Morgan and gave him moral support.
When play resumed, Missouri State (4-2, 3-1) had the ball at the 35 and they moved downfield on a clearly distracted ISU defense. A 26-yard touchdown catch by Tyrone Scott with 40 seconds left ended a nightmare one minute for the Sycamores as they trailed 24-0.
"We felt good about where were at, but then we had turnovers back-to-back and Missouri State responded. We put ourselves in a hole and couldn't get out of it," Mallory said.
The Sycamores had little to offer in the second half. When Scott scored again via a 41-yard touchdown pass with 9:18 left in the third quarter, ISU faded to the finish.
Morgan's injury was the most serious one the ISU had. Carter Herrin and Kelvin Broome were also injured and quarterback Anthony Thompson came off the field at one point too, but later returned.
ISU did get a bounce from the return of Hendrix, who had 10 catches for 121 yards and a touchdown. For a while, ISU's running game was productive. Peterson Kerlegrand rushed for 67 yards, all but 18 gained before the events at the end of the first half.
"We moved the ball. But once we got across the 50, we'd just stall. We didn't finish on drives and that's on us as an offense," Hendrix said.
However, none of it was good enough to avoid a heavy defeat on a difficult day.
"We'll get back to work. We put ourselves in this hole, we have to get ourselves out of it. We were able to do that last week with the win over Western Illinois, but we're back where we were, now we need to get ourselves out and play the way we know we can play," Mallory said.
ISU (3-4, 1-3) next hosts Youngstown State at 1 p.m. next Saturday for Homecoming.
