TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- The Indiana State Sycamores scored twice in the final 31 seconds against Illinois State, but the rally fell short and the Redbirds escaped Memorial Stadium with a 17-10 victory in front of 6,008 fans on an overcast and chilly afternoon.

ISU saw its five-game winning streak come to a halt as they dropped to 7-3, 5-2 MVFC while Illinois State improved to 8-2, 5-2 MVFC.

"My hat is off to Illinois State, I thought they did a wonderful job defensively," head coach Trent Miles said. "They contained our offense all afternoon and they deserved to win. They did not turn the ball over. You look at the stats and both teams had 311 yards of total offense. We just were not able to sustain any drives or put any points up on the board. Illinois State got points early in the second half and put us in a bad situation. Our players kept fighting and played hard right up until the end of the game."

The Redbirds and Sycamores played a scoreless first half as Illinois State was forced to punt on 5-of-6 offensive possessions by the Indiana State defense and turned the ball over on downs at the ISU 26-yard line early in the second quarter. ISU punted on 5-of-7 offensive possessions, turned it over on downs at the Redbird 35-yard line and held the ball as the clock expired for halftime.

Senior punter Lucas Hileman pinned the Redbirds inside their own 20-yard line four times in the first half, including at the four as well as at the one.

"That was a really good college defensive football game out there today," Miles said. "Illinois State is in the playoffs and we will be there with a win at Youngstown State."

The Redbirds, who won the toss and deferred to the second half, were held to a three-and-out, on the first possession of the second half, but ended a 12-play, 56-yard drive at the 6:52 mark of the third quarter with a 36-yard field goal by Nick Aussieker for a 3-0 advantage.

Illinois State would score on its next offensive possession as Tyrone Walker hauled in a four-yard pass from Matt Brown with 2:21 left in the third to stretch the lead out to 10-0.

Darrelynn Dunn capped a short two-play drive with 2:52 remaining in the game on a three-yard touchdown run to make it 17-0 in favor of the Redbirds.

That is when things got interesting for the Sycamores.

Michael Mardis, one of 15 seniors honored after the game as part of the 2012 Indiana State Football Senior Class, caught a six-yard offering from Mike Perish with 31 seconds left to cut the lead down to 17-7.

The Sycamores recovered the onside kick when Kendall Walker pounced on the ball with 31 seconds left to set ISU up at its own 48-yard line. Following an incompletion, Perish found Demory Lawshe on a 20-yard pass to move it down to the Illinois State 32 and a facemask penalty inched the Sycamores even closer at the 17.

Tanner Fritschle cut the Redbird lead down to 17-10 with a 33-yard field goal with six seconds on the clock and set up another onside kick attempt.

Fritschle appeared to connect with Calvin Burnett on another successful onside attempt, but a late flag indicated that the Sycamores were offsides on the play and negated the play. The next attempt did not go 10 yards and the Redbirds were able to kneel down to run out the clock.

"If we are not offsides there at the end, we are set up to try a hail mary at the end of regulation," Miles commented. "That would have been about as good of a situation as you could be in at that point. I am very proud of our players."

The two teams finished the game even in total yards with each side amassing 311 yards of offense. The difference in the contest came in the form of two turnovers by the Sycamores in the fourth quarter.

ISU had 16 first downs in the game, compared with the Redbirds' 13.

Shakir Bell had 22 carries for 115 yards in the game, including a long of 27 and averaged 5.2 yards per rush. Mike Perish connected on 20-of-40 passes for 184 yards, including one touchdown.

Mardis was the leading receiver for the Sycamores as he caught six passes for 49 yards and a touchdown while Lawshe had five receptions for 79 yards.

Aaron Archie returned to double digit tackle numbers as he had 14 on the day, with a tackle for loss while Jacolby Washington posted 10, with a tackle for loss, pass breakup and a quarterback hurry.

The Sycamore defense limited the Redbirds to 311 yards of total offense, including 132 on the ground and 179 in the air.

Hileman punted eight times for a 43.1 yard average while the Redbirds owned a slight 30:27-29:33 advantage in time of possession.

Both defenses were on the money on third down, as the Sycamores were 3-of-15 on third down while the Redbirds finished 4-of-15.

Indiana State will enjoy a bye week on November 10, but return to action in the regular season finale on November 17 at Youngstown State. Kickoff against the Penguins is slated for 2:00 p.m. (ET) in a game that will be televised nationally on ESPN 3.