NORMAL, Ill. — An odd thing happened when halftime hit at Hancock Stadium on Saturday. As Illinois State’s players ran off the field toward their locker room, they were in a celebratory mood. Some were bouncing off the field like kangaroos. One faced the east stands and raised his arms in the air.

The Redbirds fans stood and cheered.

The score at the time: North Dakota State 15, Illinois State 9.

The home team was losing.

Yeah, it seemed weird.

“The rhythm and tempo and pace of this game was going to be controlled by both teams’ ability to move the ball on first down and they definitely did that better than us in the first half. But when you looked at the scoreboard, we had the lead,” Bison head coach Tim Polasek said. “So we were just talking to the guys at halftime, ‘Hey, this is fu

See Full Page