MOSCOW – Again, rebound victories aren’t always pretty.

The Idaho Vandals fell behind early, dominated the middle of the game and then had to hang on late to beat the Cal Poly Mustangs 34-29 in Big Sky Conference football before 8,873 at the Kibbie Dome on Saturday afternoon.

“It’s good to find a way to win,” Idaho coach Jason Eck said. “I didn’t like how we played in the first half. Credit to Cal Poly, coach (Paul) Wulff had his guys ready to be better than me in the first half. They played harder, with more will and fire. But after we had some good conversations at halftime, I really liked the way we responded.”

Late in the first half, with the Vandals (5-3, 2-2 Big Sky) trailing 14-6 and having the ball at their own 15, Eck decided to run, knowing Idaho was in the third quarter Getting the ball first would run out the clock instead of trying to force the ball downfield.

The Vandals scored on their first three drives of the second half and on four of their first five, building a 34-16 lead before Cal Poly (2-5, 1-3) scored a late touchdown and a scoop-and-score to make things interesting.

Redshirt freshman Jack Wagner, the only healthy one among Idaho's top three quarterbacks, threw for a season-high 347 yards and three touchdowns.

He opened the second half with completions of 29 yards to Mark Hamper and 45 yards to Jordan Dwyer, and the drive culminated in an 8-yard toss to tight end Mike Martinez. Backup quarterback Rocco Koch, a true freshman, scored the two-point conversion and tied the game at 14 points.

On the next drive, Wagner hit Hamper for 39 yards to the Cal Poly 4, and a facemask penalty moved it to the 2. Koch came in and ran it in on the next play.

But Cameron Pope's PAT was blocked and Cal Poly's Brian Dukes ran back 80 yards for two scores. Instead of a 21-14 lead for Idaho, the Vandals led 20-16.

On the next drive, Wagner hit Alex Moore for 33 yards and Hamper for 22 yards, then connected with Emmerson Cortez-Menjivar on a 21-yard pass and run for a score and a 27-16 lead.

Early in the fourth quarter, Dwyer beat the cornerback down the left sideline and caught a 21-yard TD pass from Wagner to make it 34-16 with 6:11 left.

This touchdown attempt was initiated when Idaho's Keyshawn James-Newby hit Cal Poly quarterback Bo Kelly on a pass attempt. The ball fluttered in the air and linebacker Isiah King intercepted the ball at the Mustang 46.

After only having one catch for five yards in the first half, Dwyer finished the game with seven receptions for 87 yards. Hamper had four catches for 103 yards, all in the second half.

“There was a lot going on in the first half; We just had to calm down and execute our style of football,” Dwyer said.

“I thought Wags had done some better things,” Eck said. “That was his most precise throw. Jordan Dwyer made a lot of big catches for us and Mark Hamper did it. Mike Martinez’s touchdown pass catch was probably one of the best catches I’ve ever seen – as big as he is, he goes down and takes it deep.”

With Idaho's top two defenders sidelined by injuries, Art Williams, a redshirt freshman from Rocky Mountain High in Meridian, carried 15 balls for 86 yards. But his fumble late in the game was returned by Kai Rapolla for a 71-yard touchdown with 1:02 left. The Mustangs went for two and failed, leaving the deficit at five.

Moore recovered Cal Poly's onside kick and the Vandals knelt until the end.

After Pope opened the scoring with a field goal, Cal Poly responded with two touchdown drives – one of which was capped off by a 50-yard run by Michael Briscoe on a reverse to the Idaho 2.

Idaho had the ball at the Cal Poly 1 late in the half, but Koch lost a yard to a keeper, and a penalty on fourth down pushed the Vandals back to the 7, and Eck settled for a 3.

“If we had continued like we did in the first half, we would have lost the football game,” said Eck. “We responded well on both sides and did some good things.”

“When you see all these strange things and all these strange things happening in the first half, you just have to be able to react to them,” James-Newby said.

The halftime adjustments were more about attitude.

“It was more about the fact that we have to play with more concentration, we have to have better execution, we have to play with more toughness, more competitiveness and more will,” Eck said. “We played the first half as if we wanted to get the game behind us. I attacked the boys more (at halftime) than usual.”

Cal Poly had emphasized the run in its first two Big Sky games, but the Vandals held the Mustangs to 77 yards on the ground. Kelly threw for 268 yards, mostly on short passes, with two touchdowns and a pick.

“I thought they ran the ball more,” Eck said of Cal Poly. “They must have concluded that their best option was not to run the ball but to use a lot of quick passes and get the ball out of his hands quickly so the rush couldn't play as big of a role. We just changed some coverages (in the second half) to be able to attack their guys quicker.”

Owen Forsman, a true freshman from Lakeland High, made seven starts for the Vandals, including five and four touchbacks.

Zach Johnson, a redshirt freshman linebacker from Lake City, had four tackles.

Idaho hosts Eastern Washington next Saturday at 6 p.m

Cal Poly 0 14 2 13 – 29

Idaho 3 3 21 7 – 34

First quarter

Idaho-FG Pope 44, 1:38

Second quarter

Cal Poly – Woods 17 pass from Kelly (Serma kick), 9:49

Cal Poly – Marshall 3 pass from Watts (Serna kick), 5:30

Idaho – FG Pope 25

Third quarter

Idaho – Martinez 8 pass from Wagner (Koch run), 12:08

Idaho – Koch 2 run (kick blocked; returned by Dukes of Cal Poly for 2 points), 7:05

Idaho – Cortez-Menjivar 21 pass from Wagner (Pope kick), 3:13

Fourth quarter

Idaho – Dwyer 21 pass from Wagner (Pope kick), 6:11

Cal Poly – Woods 4 pass from Kelly (Serna kick), 2:39

Cal Poly – Rapolla 71 fumble return (run failed), 1:02

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING – Cal Poly, Briscoe 1-50, Hall 7-18, Watts 4-13, Ramos 7-12, Kelly 3-(minus 4). Idaho, Williams 15-86, Buchanan 7-24, Koch 5-16, Team 2-(minus 3), Wagner 6-(minus 17).

PASSING – Cal Poly, Kelly 29-41-1-268, Watts 2-2-0-12. Idaho, Wagner 17-23-1-347.

RECEPTION – Cal Poly, Woods 8-102, Booher 7-52, Garrison 5-58, Woods 3-20, Hall 3-19, Briscoe 3-12, Ramos 1-14, Marshall 1-3. Idaho, Dwyer 7-87, Hamper 4-103, Moore 2-36, Harste 1-65, Mini 1-27, Cortez Menjivar 1-21, Martinez 1-8.

Photo by IDAHO ATHLETICS Idaho's Jordan Dwyer catches a touchdown pass while Cal Poly's Mason Rivera (32) defends in the second half on Saturday at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow.