Iowa State rallies past Iowa, winning Cy-Hawk Trophy

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IOWA CITY (AP) — Iowa State’s Cole Netten got two cracks at the biggest kick of his life.

Netten nailed his second chance, giving the Cyclones a win that just might turn their season around.

Netten hit a 42-yard field goal with 2 seconds left and Iowa State rallied to beat Iowa 20-17 on Saturday, picking up its first win of the season.

Sam Richardson had 255 yards passing and 2 TDs for the Cyclones (1-2), who beat the rival Hawkeyes (2-1) for the third time in four tries.

At halftime, Iowa State was staring at a third straight loss with a visit from high-flying Baylor looming in two weeks.

When it was all over, the Cyclones had both the Cy-Hawk trophy and a new outlook on the year.

“I’m proud of my kids. Proud of their perseverance to get the season started the way it has prior to week three. I’m proud to be 1-2,” said Iowa State coach Paul Rhoads.

The Cyclones needed a major comeback to avoid 0-3.

Iowa State took a 17-14 lead with 7:33 left on Richardson’s 27-yard TD pass to DeVondrick Nealy. Iowa answered with Marshall Koehn’s 44-yard field goal with 4:08 to go.

Netten missed his first try at the game-winner. But Iowa had already called a timeout in an effort to ice Netten, so that try was waved off.

Netten’s second attempt went straight through the uprights.

“It’s a 50-50 shot. Either you call timeout or you don’t,” said Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz, who fell to 7-9 against his instate rivals. “We had one left, and that’s the reason we called it.”

Jake Rudock threw for 146 yards and an interception for Iowa, which earlier put Iowa State in a 14-3 hole.

T.J. Mutcherson gave the Cyclones life with their first takeaway of the season, intercepting Rudock and returning it to the Iowa 32.

Richardson then found E.J. Bibbs with a jump pass on 4th and inches to pull Iowa State to 14-10 with 6:50 left in the third quarter.

The Cyclones went 92 yards on their initial go-ahead drive — which was aided by a targeting call that got Iowa safety Jordan Lomax ejected and Iowa State’s Jarvis West knocked out of the game.

Iowa quickly tied it up. But the Cyclones, who were held scoreless in the second half of their first two games, drove 51 yards to set up Netten’s winning kick.

Iowa State outgained Iowa 337-275 behind an improved defensive effort and the best game of the year from Richardson.

“They just got in a rhythm and started clicking and we just couldn’t stop them. I thought we played well in the first half but just couldn’t finish,” Iowa linebacker Quinton Alston said.

Iowa senior lineman Brandon Scherff started, even though coach Kirk Ferentz said on Tuesday he was “day-to-day” after hurting his right knee in last week’s win over Ball State.

The Hawkeyes were determined to get their surprisingly sluggish running game going behind their star left tackle.

The effort produced just 129 yards on 36 carries. But the Hawkeyes went ahead 7-0 anyway on Mark Weisman’s 1-yard TD leap.

Iowa later converted a 4th-down-and-8 at the Cyclones 16-yard line, and Rudock ran 5 yards for a touchdown and a 14-3 Iowa lead.

The Cyclones answered with their best drive yet.

Then they blew it at the end.

Nealy was drilled by Quinton Alston at the goal line, and Greg Mabin recovered the fumble in the end zone.

That turnover, along with an interception that cornerback Sam E. Richardson dropped on the previous drive, sapped the Cyclones of any momentum heading into halftime.

But after crumbling in the second half of its first two games, Iowa State outplayed the Hawkeyes in the final 30 minutes.

Nealy made up for his earlier blunder, and Netten — who incidentally went to the same Iowa high school as Rhoads — hit one of the most memorable kicks in school history.