MOSCOW — Three times, Idaho State quarterback Matt Struck dropped back to pass.

Three times, the play ended with a player in the black-and-gold of the Idaho Vandals romping into the opposite end zone.

In front of a loud and proud homecoming crowd of 10,361 at Idaho’s Kibbie Dome on Saturday, every positive narrative the Bengals had built over the first half of the season crumbled, a mirage fading away with every second of Idaho’s 45-21 win.

“It stings,” Idaho State wide receiver Mitch Gueller said. “Losing any conference game always does. ... If you go out there and you click and you do everything you’re supposed to do, and you lose, so be it. I guess you can find a way to live with that one. But we didn’t play the way we know we can play, and it’s frustrating.”

A possible playoff run? Now almost certainly out of reach.

Struck as one of the top-tier quarterbacks in the Big Sky? Not anymore, after the junior threw two pick-sixes and fumbled twice — one of which was also taken back for a touchdown — tripling his season turnover count in 60 nightmarish minutes.

Even state supremacy, taken as a given after the Bengals smashed Idaho 62-28 last year, slipped from their fingers as an Idaho team coming in on a three-game losing streak found the motivation to run away with a blowout win.

“It’s tough to win on the road in this conference,” Idaho State head coach Rob Phenicie said. “The team we were playing plays very well at home, but that’s not an excuse. We still have to come out and do what we do.”

The Vandals (2-5, 1-3), starting second-stringer Colton Richardson at quarterback with Mason Petrino out, jumped out to a 24-0 lead in the first 20 minutes of the game as Idaho State (3-4, 2-2) couldn’t pressure Richardson, giving star wide receiver Jeff Cotton plenty of time to get open.

Cotton had nine catches for 174 yards in the first half alone.

Richardson ran in a 2-yard touchdown to open the scoring after the first of Struck’s turnovers, a fumble forced by Charles Akanno, gave the Vandals a short field.

“Kudos to their defense, they played outstanding,” Gueller said. “They had a little bit of a different game plan than what we were expecting, and we had to make adjustments.”

Trying to answer, Struck rolled right on third down and looked to be taking the ball out of bounds, but decided to fire it at the last second, lasering it right into the chest of Idaho’s Lloyd Hightower.

Hightower took the interception back 45 yards for a touchdown and a 14-0 lead, and things got worse before they got better for Idaho State.

“Nothing good ever happens when you scramble to the sidelines and throw it late like that,” Phenicie said. “In my 30 years of coaching, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen interceptions like that.”

A 24-yard Cade Coffey field goal and a 5-yard pass from Richardson to Cotton made it 24-0 Idaho early in the second quarter.

The Bengals, to their credit, didn’t back down.

Manase Time, starting for the suspended Adkin Aguirre at safety, put his helmet right on the ball to force a fumble from Idaho running back Nick Romano, Luke Holloway recovered, and ISU took advantage of the gift, with freshman Malakai Rango running for a 4-yard score to get the Bengals on the board.

Down 24-7 at the break, Idaho State started the second half well.

Struck found tight end Austin Campbell for an 11-yard touchdown on the opening drive to cut the lead to 10 points, but the defense couldn’t find a stop.

Aguirre, back on the field for the second half after serving his suspension for targeting, lost Connor Whitney deep, and Richardson hit him for a 58-yard score to stretch the lead back to 31-14.

The ISU offense had one more response in it. Struck hit Gueller for a 10-yard touchdown on the ensuing drive. Gueller finished with a career-high 11 catches for 166 yards, becoming one of nine Big Sky receivers to go over 3,000 career yards in the process.

The Bengals even got the ball back after that when Coffey dinged a 38-yard field goal attempt off the right upright. Struck drove them to the Idaho 36, but on third-and-8, Leo Tamba came unblocked from his blind side, hitting Struck and forcing a fumble.

The ball caromed around the backfield for a few moments until an Idaho player batted it out to Hightower, who scooped it up and raced 49 yards for his second defensive touchdown of the day.

“Turnovers caught up to us in a big way,” Phenicie said. “You just can’t have turnovers, period. You can’t give up 28 points like that. ... This is an easy one to pinpoint what happened.”

That made it 38-21 with 15 seconds to go in the third quarter and left Idaho State with the smallest sliver of a chance at a comeback.

Before the quarter was over, that door was slammed all the way, as Struck threw a hitch on the second play of the ensuing drive right to Idaho’s Sedrick Thomas.

The Vandal linebacker returned the interception 36 yards for a score as the third quarter ended, making the score 45-21 and the fourth quarter little more than a formality.

“You can’t get too low with the lows,” Gueller said. “This one sucks, it hurts, but we have to rebound. I know that the guys in the locker room are going to rebound, we’re going to come back, and we’re going to be ready to go (next week).”

Struck finished 27 for 52 for 316 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions for Idaho State. Tanner Conner had seven catches for 68 yards for ISU, and Rango led the Bengals with 58 rushing yards. Oshea Trujillo led the defense with 10 tackles.

Up next:

Idaho State is on the road again, playing Southern Utah (1-7, 0-4) in Cedar City.