Football extends conference home win-streak to seven.

September 5, 1998

PULLMAN, Wash. - Washington State extended the Pac-10's longest home winning streak to seven games Saturday, with a 20-13 victory over the Illinois Fighting Illini in front of 31,568 at Martin Stadium. The victory was the 100th of coach Mike Price's career and made the Cougars a perfect 1-0 all-time against Big-Ten opponents in Pullman.

The first points of the 1998 season were not scored by the offense, but instead by the defense midway through the first quarter. With first down at the WSU 41 yard line, Illini quarterback Mark Hoekstra dropped back to pass and was blind-sided by the Cougars' Jonathan Nance, who came around Illinois' offensive line untouched. When Nance drilled the senior quarterback, the football popped loose to Rob Meier, who rumbled 52 yards for the score. A Rian Lindell extra-point put the Cougars up 7-0 with 8:41 to play in the first quarter.

In an attempt to respond, the Illini drove to WSU's 19 yard line, but kicker Neil Rackers was unable to convert on the 36-yard field goal attempt, making it Cougar ball. Two Kevin Brown rushes gaining 46 yards, two Steve Birnbaum passes to Nian Taylor gaining 17 yards and two DeJuan Gilmore rushes netting 5 yards, set the Cougars up for the score at Illinois' 12 yard line. From there, Birnbaum connected with Taylor near the sideline, where Taylor faked out three Illinois defenders to make his way into the endzone for the score. As the first quarter expired, the Cougar were ahead 14-0.

Early in the second quarter, the Illini showed some fight. After a Gilmore fumble gave Illinois first-and-10 at the WSU 39, running back Steve Havard did the rest. In three carries, Havard ran for 29 yards and a touchdown. The Rackers' point-after halved the score, 14-7 with seven minutes remaining in the first half. The craziest play of the game came only minutes later as the Cougars faced a punting situation from their own 46 yard line. An errant snap sent punter Kareem Anderson running back to within the 15 yard line where he scooped the ball up and punted it away from the closing Illinois defenders. The punt sailed for a loss of one yard on the down, but kept the Illini out of the redzone.

Still, the field position proved good enough to give the Illini a scoring opportunity. With 2:43 left in the first half, Rackers atoned for his earlier miss by knocking a 46-yard field goal through the uprights and bringing the score to 14-10. After a trade in possessions, WSU received the ball on their own 26 with 46 seconds remaining in the second quarter. Birnbaum quickly found Love Jefferson and Adam Davis for 39 yards and position at Illinois' 35 yard line. Then, with seven ticks left on the clock, Lindell pounded a 52-yard field goal giving WSU a 17-10 halftime advantage.

Halfway through the third quarter, the Cougars looked to put more points on the board. Driving from their own 14 yard line, the WSU offense caught fire. Aided by the ground game, Birnbaum completed seven-of-eight passes to lead the charge to Illinois' six yard line. A 23-yard kick by Lindell bought the Cougar advantage to 20-10. The 10-point difference held until another costly Gilmore fumble gave the Illini the ball near midfield with eight minutes to play in the game. In just over two minutes, Illinois managed 36 yards in eight plays, setting up a Rackers 36-yard field goal that brought them within seven. WSU's offense helped the defense by running five minutes off the clock before punting the ball away for the final time. Eighty yards away from the endzone, with 34 seconds of game time left, the Illini could not crack the Cougar defense and lost their 18th straight game, dating back to the 1996 season.

WASHINGTON STATE	14	3	3	0	20
ILLINOIS		0	10	0	3	13


TEAM	QTR	TIME	SCORING PLAY (Yards/Plays/Drive Time/How Gained Possession)
WSU	1	8:41	Meier 52 fumble recovery (Lindell kick)
WSU	1	0:30	Taylor 12 pass from Birnbaum (Lindell kick) (80/7/3:33/punt)
ILL	2	7:18	Harvard 11 rush (Rackers kick) (39/5/0:57/fumble)
ILL	2	2:43	Rackers 46 kick (14/8/1:51/punt)
WSU	2	0:01	Lindell 52 kick (39/5/0:45/punt)
WSU	3	0:36	Lindell 23 kick (80/13/6:09/punt)
ILL	4	5:46	Rackers 36 kick (36/8/2:19/punt)


TOTAL OFFENSE  -  WSU 71/362/5.1 .  ILL 78/268/3.4.
RUSHING  -  WSU 37/191/30/161/0/41 : Brown 17/121, Gilmore 15/69,
Thielbahr, Birnbaum 4/0.  ILL 36/151/28/123/1/17 : Havard 24/104, Cook
7/45, Hoekstra 5/2.
PASSING  -  WSU :  Birnbaum 34/19/1/201/1/27.  ILL :  Hoekstra
42/17/0/145/0/15.
RECEIVING  -  WSU: Taylor 5/45, White 4/38, Jefferson 3/41, Gilmore 3/29,
Hackett 2/30, Davis 1/12, Brown 1/6.  ILL: Smalls 5/40, Dean 4/48, Majoy
2/26, Cook 2/ -2, Havard 1/13, Hoffman 1/10, McDonald-Ashford 1/6, Hodges 1/4.
INTERCEPTIONS  -  WSU: None.  ILL: Gusich 1/19.
PUNTING  -  WSU: Anderson 5/238/47.6/51, Team 1/-1/-1.0/0.  ILL: Fitts
8/349/43.6/53.
PUNT RETURNS  -  WSU: Taylor 2/30.  ILL: Smalls 3/10.
KICKOFF RETURNS  -  WSU: Taylor 1/6, Moronkola 1/42.  ILL: Smalls 4/91.
SCORING  -  WSU: Lindell 8, Meier 6, Taylor 6.  ILL: Rackers 7, Havard 6.
FIRST DOWNS  -  WSU: 20/9/9/2.  ILL: 20/8/11/1.
FUMBLES/LOST  -  WSU: 3/2.  ILL: 1/1.
PENALTIES/YARDS  -  WSU: 8/56.  ILL: 7/66.
POSSESSION TIME  -  WSU: 31:05.  ILL: 28:52.
THIRD-DOWN CONVERSIONS  -  WSU: 7/16.  ILL: 5/19.
ATTENDANCE  -  31,568.
WSU TACKLERS (T-P-A)  --   Riley 8/5/3, Gleason 8/3/5, R. Smith 7/7/0,
Price 7/5/2, Thompson 6/6/0, Philley 5/4/1, Nance 4/4/0, Meier 4/4/0,
Newman 3/3/0, Matson 3/2/1, Holmes 2/2/0, Emmerson 2/2/0, Ratcliff 2/2/0,
Boose 2/0/2, Birnbaum 1/1/0, Marong 1/1/0, Martin 1/1/0, Jefferson 1/1/0,
Wagner 1/0/1.
WSU SACKS  --  R. Smith 1/ -8, Nance 1/-7.
WSU TFL  -  Smith 1/-8, Philley 1/-3, Nance 2/-10, Meier 1/-1.

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