The Michigan State Spartans beat the Indiana Hoosiers 24-21 Saturday Afternoon to take back the Old Brass Spittoon as the road team has won the last four meetings in this series dating back to 2020. Michigan State leads the all-time series 50-18-2 and 50-15-1 in the battle for the Spittoon. The Hoosiers have not won back-to-back games against Michigan State since they won three straight games in the series from 1967-69. Indiana is 3-8 on the season along with 1-7 Conference record and will finish last place in the Big Ten East while Michigan State is 4-7 and 2-6 in the Big Ten. Indiana will travel to archrival Purdue next Saturday for the Old Oaken Bucket game at Noon on Saturday.
On the first possession of the game Michigan State drove down the field 9 plays and 62 yards as Kaitin Houser found Maliq Carr on a 17-yard pass to make the score 7-0 with 11:02 left in the first quarter. The Hoosiers punted on their first two possessions and the Spartans punted on their second possession. Michigan State faced a 3rd and 7 at the Hoosiers 46-yard line when Houser was picked off by Josh Sanguinetti. The Hoosiers unable to move the ball and had to punt away for the third time and the Spartans punted the ball back. The Hoosiers got on the board when Trent Howland scored on 4-yard run that capped off an 11 play 88-yard drive with 9:29 left in the second quarter to tie the game at 7-7. The Spartans went for it on 4th and 1 at the Indiana 28-yard line as Kaitin Houser’s QB sneak was stuffed for no gain as the Spartans gave the ball back to the Hoosiers but for the fourth time in five drives the Hoosiers punted the ball away. The Spartans capped off an 8 play 78-yard drive in 1:13 with Kaitin Houser finding Montorie Foster Jr on a 29-yard score. Foster made a great catch in traffic and a spin move and the Hoosiers poor tackling gave Foster Jr. a chance to walk in for touchdown to give Michigan State the lead 14-7 with 1:10 left in the second quarter. The Hoosiers had one more chance to score when Chris Freeman’s 45-yard field goal came up short and Michigan State went into the locker room up 14-7.
In the Second Half Indiana got the ball first and the Hoosiers used an 8 play 75-yard drive that included a 38-yard pass from Sorsby to Donaven McCulley that set up a 3-yard touchdown pass to James Bomba to tie the game 14-14 with 10:54 left in the 3rd quarter. Both teams traded punts. The Spartans Kaitin Houser threw his second interception of the game and Jamari Sharpe returned it the Indiana 48-yard line and he fumbled the ball and the Spartans Alante Brown recovered. Michigan State was unable to convert and punted the ball away. The Hoosiers had a 13 play 66-yard drive stopped when Brendan Sorsby threw an incomplete pass to Donaven McCulley and the Spartans took over as the Hoosiers used up five minutes and 26 seconds of clock. The Spartans used a 7 play 39-yard drive chewing up 3 minutes and nine seconds of clock that resulted in a Jonathan Kim 36-yard field goal to the Spartans the 17-14 lead 9:26 left in the fourth quarter. Indiana went 11 plays and 75 yards as Brendan Sorsby found Trey Walker for an 8-yard score with 4:06 left in the fourth quarter. The Spartans responded with an 8 play 75-yard drive in two minutes and 47 seconds as Houser found Maliq Carr on 36-yard touchdown pass and poor tackling gave the Spartans a 24-21 lead with 1:19 left in the game.
Indiana had one last chance on a first and ten at the Michigan State 25-yard line. Brendan Sorsby threw an incomplete pass intended for E.J. Williams and Sorsby was called for intentional grounding and that pushed the Hoosiers back to the Michigan State 31-yard line and the Hoosiers had to use their final timeout. Chris Freeman missed a 48-yard field goal with 2 seconds left and the Spartans took a knee to win the game.
Brendan Sorsby finished the game 19-34 for 192 yards passing with 2 touchdowns along with 59 yards rushing on 14 carries. DeQuece Carter had 6 Catches for 59 yards and Trent Howland had 19 carries for 77 yards and a touchdown. Michigan State’s Kaitin Houser was 26-41 for 245 yards passing with 3 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. Maliq Carr had 9 catches for 100 yards and 2 touchdowns along Montorie Foster Jr catching 7 passes for 93 yards and a touchdown. Indiana outgained Michigan State 402-317 and Indiana 210 rushing yards to 72 for Michigan State. Indiana Head Coach Tom Allen made it clear going into the final game against Purdue that the Hoosiers will fight until the clock hits zero. “I got this team’s back, period. They know it. We will fight to the finish I promised you that” Allen Said after the game.
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