TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - The Indiana State defense made a last minute stand against a driving Sycamore offense to hold on to a 20-16 victory in the annual Blue/White Spring Game. On a day in which the weather threatened, but held off for the entire two-hour workout, the Wabash Valley and a strong contingent of alumni showed up at Memorial Stadium to support third-year head coach Trent Miles and his developing program.

What everyone saw was the offense score on each of their first two drives before the defense controlled the final quarter and a half. Trailing 20-10, the offense got back on track with a short one-yard scoring rush by senior Darrius Gates with 35 seconds left in the third quarter. After the Gates TD made it 20-16, the Sycamore offense put together another drive that consumed most of the final period. The Sycamore defense got a key breakup from sophomore Kenny Smith on the final play of the spring game to stop a final drive to hold onto the victory.

The Sycamore offense scored with a traditional scoring system, while the defense accumulated four points for each three-and-out stop and also five points for any turnovers plus any scores that they accounted for themselves.

The offense got on the board on the first drive as junior transfer quarterback Ronnie Fouch connected with senior Larry Lacotti on a 12-yard touchdown pass with 10:33 left in the first quarter to take a 7-0 advantage. On the second drive, the offense got three more points for a 10-0 cushion with a 43-yard field goal from Braulio Martinez with 4:57 on the clock.

The defense then took control with five three-and-out stops for a 20-10 lead and nearly iced the game late in the third quarter when redshirt freshman Larry King nearly hauled in an interception for five points, but was ruled out of bounds by the Missouri Valley Football Conference officiating crew. Gates then scored to close out the third quarter before sophomore Brett Sheldon got his first PAT opportunity of the spring.

The Sycamore offense then moved the ball without scoring on its next two drives for no scores, including the final defensive stop.

Gates paced the offense with 137 rushing yards on 18 attempts, averaging over seven yards per carry, including his scoring rush in the third quarter. Gates added two pass receptions for 24 yards. He had a 44-yard rush in the first quarter to bolster his final statistics.

Fouch paced the Sycamore quarterbacks with a 13-for-19 passing performance for 122 yards, including the scoring pass to Lacotti. Sophomore transfer Coy Glass was 4-of-10 for 26 yards while junior Travis Johnson was 9-of-19 for 66 yards.

ISU was paced in receiving by freshman Demory Lawshe who had four receptions for 31 yards. Senior Bryant Kent and Matt King had three receptions each.

Larry Carter and Rod Hardy paced the Sycamores with seven tackles each. Hardy had a quarterback sack as well. There were nine total sacks in the scrimmage, paced by a pair from Ben Obaseki.

The Blue/White Spring Game capped an exciting weekend for the Sycamores in which over 130 alumni, fans and members of the ISU community took to the Idle Creek Golf Course on Friday for the annual ISU/Ballyhoo/Jay Barrett Athletic Foundation Golf Outing on Friday. Nearly 100 participated Saturday morning in the ISU Football Youth Fun Day at Memorial Stadium as well.