Cyclones Rout Jayhawks on Senior Day

AMES, Iowa – Iowa State celebrated Senior Day with a rousing victory.

Rocco Becht passed for three touchdowns and reached a career milestone and Carson Hansen tacked on another 100-yard rushing game as the Cyclones beat Kansas 38-14 to close out their home schedule on a gorgeous late autumn Saturday at MidAmerica Field at Jack Trice Stadium.

Iowa State turned back the Jayhawks with long, clock-eating scoring drives and reached seven wins for the eighth time in the last nine years, improving to 7-4 overall and 4-4 in the Big 12. It was the Cyclones' second straight win after snapping a four-game losing streak and sends them into their season finale at Oklahoma State next Saturday with some momentum.

Becht completed his first 10 passes and become the third ISU quarterback to top 9,000 yards for his career, finishing 18-of-23 for 241 yards, no interceptions and the three TDs.

Now with 9,161 career yards through the air, Becht became the 10^th player in Big 12 history with at least 9,000 passing yards, 60 touchdown passes and 19 rushing touchdowns. He now has 63 touchdown passes in his four seasons with ISU, trailing only Brock Purdy's 81 on the school's career list.

Hansen topped 100 yards for the fourth straight game, finishing with 120 in 22 carries and scoring a touchdown. He ran his season total to 841 and Abu Sama added 57 yards in 19 carries to run his season figure to 645. It's the first time Iowa State has had two backs run for more than 600 yards in a season since 1982, when Tommy Davis and Harold Brown both reached that figure.

Becht connected on TD passes for 9 and 20 yards to Bret Eskildsen and 12 yards to Ben Brahmer. Hansen added a 4-yard scoring run, Aiden Flora zipped 38 yards for the final touchdown and Kyle Konrardy kicked a 55-yard field goal, the fifth of his career of at least 50 yards.

Iowa State racked up 462 yards in all, including 221 on the ground. It's the sixth straight game the Cyclones have rushed for least 150 yards, the longest streak since they did it seven straight times in 2009. That production combined with Brecht's sharp passing gave ISU a huge edge in possession time, controlling the ball nearly twice as long as Kansas, 39:08 to 20:52.

Kansas scored both its touchdowns on four-play drives that took less than 2 minutes each. Iowa State, meanwhile, reeled off time-consuming TD drives of 12, 10, eight, 10 and nine plays. The Cyclones scored on their first three possessions to open a 17-0 halftime lead and got points six of the eight times they had the ball.

Becht took the offense right down on the field on the game's opening drive, rolling to his right and hitting Eskildsen for a 9-yard score to cap a 12-play, 75-yard drive. The Cyclones made it 14-0 when Hansen finished a 10-play 72-yard march with a 4-yard TD run on a slickly executed counter play. When Iowa State's third possession stalled at the KU 37, Konrardy trotted in and kicked his field goal with room to spare.

Kansas (5-6, 3-5) drew to 17-7 on Leshon Williams' 4-yard touchdown run, the fourth play of a 65-yard drive that took only 1:54. Back came the Cyclones with another long march, highlighted by Becht's 36-yard completion to Chase Sowell on third-and-12 from the ISU 35. Four plays later, on fourth-and-1 at the Kansas 20, Becht rolled right and zipped a pass to Eskildsen in the end zone.

Eskildsen finished with six catches for 73 yards. The two touchdown receptions were a career high for the sophomore from Frisco, Texas.

Kansas needed only 1:08 to get what turned out to be its final touchdown. Quarterback Jalon Daniels left the field after taking a hard hit and his replacement, Cole Ballard, promptly threw a 21-yard TD pass to Boden Groen, drawing the Jayhawks to 24-14. But the ISU defense took care of matters after that and the offense continued to produce.

The Cyclones scored again on fourth down when Becht faked a handoff and found Ben Brahmer all alone in the end zone from 12 yards out. The defense then stopped Daniels a yard short of a first down at the ISU 44 and while the offense couldn't convert, that unit got the ball back on Marcus Neal's goal line interception, his second pick of the year.

The Cyclones then went nine plays in 84 yards, eating up nearly 6 minutes before Flora burst through a big hole and sprinted 36 yards for his second touchdown in as many games. He returned a punt 79 yards for a winning touchdown the 20-17 victory over TCU two weeks ago.

Daniels completed 13 of 23 passes for 154 yards for the Jayhawks, who had won three straight against ISU, and became the 11^th Big 12 player with 9,000 passing yards, 60 TD passes and 19 rushing touchdowns. He has thrown for 9,095 yards in his career with 66 touchdown passes and 22 TDs on the ground.

Cyclones Rout Jayhawks on Senior Day

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Rocco Becht

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Aiden Flora

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Cyclones Rout Jayhawks on Senior Day

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