It was a tale of two halves as No. 4 Idaho jumped out to a 24-point lead only to escape with a three-point victory over No. 19 Abilene Christian in the final nonconference game of the regular season for the Vandals.

Idaho held on to win 27-24 Saturday in Abilene, Texas.

“Really good win. This is a good team. Abilene Christian, they kept fighting,” Idaho coach Jason Eck said. “They came back against Texas Tech as well. It didn’t surprise me that they kept playing and kept playing hard. Really good job of finding a way to win.”

Freshman quarterback Jack Wagner had two first-quarter touchdown passes and finished the day 18-of-35 for 253 yards and two touchdowns. Jordan Dwyer and Mark Hamper each had a touchdown reception and running backs Nate Thomas and Eli Cummings combined for 120 yards on the ground.

“I (have) a great connection with Jack Wagner. He’s a great young quarterback. He’s stepped into the role and done his thing very well,” Dwyer said. “That pass was amazing. It was right in the bucket. I looked to the left at the last second and the ball was in my lap.”

The Idaho defense flustered Maverick McIvor early, but the ACU senior QB had a strong second half to finish the day 26-of-46 for 288 yards and two touchdowns. The Vandals intercepted McIvor twice, his first two interceptions thrown on the season.

A dominant first half

It looked like Idaho was going to handle Abilene Christian as well as it handled UAlbany last week to wrap up nonconference play with two dominant wins over top-25 programs.

Vandals defensive back Kyrin Beachem intercepted a McIvor pass that went sailing due to pressure from the Idaho defensive line on the sixth play of the game.

The Wildcats, who average 37.7 points per game and 479 yards of offense per game, were held to three three-and-out drives and were only able to muster 104 total yards in the first half. The only ACU score came after a strong 12-play, 65-yard drive down to the Idaho 10. The Vandals made a stop and forced the Wildcats to kick a field goal.

Meanwhile, Idaho scored on four of its six first half drives and relied on the pass to move the ball down the field.

Wagner threw the ball 27 times in the first half. He completed 14 of them for 225 yards and two touchdowns.

“We thought they had a really good defensive line and we thought the secondary was not as strong,” Eck said. “I thought that was something we could take advantage of, throwing the ball early and being aggressive. It kind of worked to our plan of building a lead. Now we (need) to run the ball a little bit better when we get in that situation.”

The first touchdown of the game was a beautiful pass from Wagner to the corner of the end zone to Dwyer for a 22-yard score. Dwyer had a defender on his back hip and turned his head right as the ball was crossing the goal line. The 6-foot receiver reached out and hauled in the score.

Idaho was efficient with the football even with the absence of a running game that could only gain 2.3 yards per carry on 12 attempts. The Vandals had 14 first-half first downs and they were 4-of-8 on third down conversions.

Quick second-half start, then the lights went out

The Vandals got the ball to start the second half and went right to the run game. Freshman wide receiver Emmerson Cortez-Menjivar took an end-around 53 yards down to the ACU 22 that had 11 yards tacked on after a horse collar tackle. Two runs by Thomas later and Idaho had a commanding 27-3 advantage.

The subsequent Wildcats drive ended in another turnover when Idaho senior safety Tommy McCormick intercepted his second pass in as many games.

During the celebration, the lights went out on the field momentarily. It did not seem like anything at the time, but  it was a symbolic switching of momentum.

Abilene Christian storms back

After throwing his second interception of the day, McIvor found a groove and drove down the field for three consecutive touchdown drives. ACU went at least 61 yards on each drive and accumulated 213 yards in the process to cut the Vandal lead down to three.

“They went to a lot more four-wide-receiver sets to try to really spread the field,” Eck said. “They really got away from the run game. They ended up throwing it 46 times and I think their tailbacks only had 22 rushes. I think all four of the quarterback runs were probably scrambles, so they probably threw it 50 times and I think they just kind of tried to go really up tempo and tried to spread the field and did a good job.”

Idaho went to a run-focused attack in the second half, but the offensive line that did a great job all game protecting Wagner could not open up any running lanes. The Vandals punted three times and turned the ball over on downs in four consecutive drives after the second half-opening touchdown drive.

The drive when Idaho turned the ball over on downs felt the most costly as the Vandals had been driving the ball down the field and eating clock.

Eck’s club went 55 yards on eight plays, but faced a fourth-and-1 on the ACU 20-yard line. Wagner faked a handoff and threw a deep ball, but the pass was knocked away.

“I think it was a bad call by me to call a run-pass option on a fourth-and-1. We had a 1-on-1 look and he threw it up,” Eck said. “It works out great if we get it, but looking back I probably would have just said, ‘Hey let’s pound this thing and try to get the 1 yard with Nate Thomas; (he) was getting some of those tough yards.'”

One final stand

Idaho was forced to punt the ball with just a three-point advantage with 57 seconds remaining. ACU started the drive at its own 20-yard line.

The first play of the drive resulted in the second sack by the Vandal defense as defensive linemen Zach Krotzer and Keyshawn James-Newby got to McIvor for the sack.

“He held it a little bit longer on that one. We prepared for it,” Krotzer said. “We run to the ball every single play and we just make things happen on the inside.”

Four plays later, with the Wildcats just past midfield, it was Krotzer again who got to McIvor and forced the ball loose. Freshman Matt Irwin jumped on the ball and the Vandals escaped with the win.

Nonconference resume complete

The second half was not what Idaho fans were expecting, but the end result is possibly the best nonconference resume in the Football Championship Subdivision.

Idaho will go into Big Sky play with two top-25 FCS victories, a win over a Mountain West team and a strong battle that ended in a loss to a Big Ten school.

“We’re excited to get into it. We work all year for this,” Krotzer said. “We had a great summer. We prepared really well. We’re a tight, close team. We’re probably the closest we’ve ever been.”

The Vandals will begin Big Sky play at 7 p.m. Saturday when they travel to Davis, Calif., to face UC Davis.

Isbelle can be reached at 208-848-2268, risbelle@lmtribune.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @RandyIsbelle.