Intrastate rivals Iowa and Iowa State slugged it out for 55 minutes before the Cyclones delivered the knockout blow to earn a 24-14 victory over the Hawkeyes Saturday at Kinnick Stadium. The Cyclones held a slim lead of 17-14 when Sage Rosenfels scored on a 5-yard bootleg with just over five minutes left in the game to put away the Hawkeyes. The win improves the Cyclones to 3-0 on the season and is their third straight win in the rivalry. “We got a real good test today and the kids answered it. It was a hard fought game. Iowa gave us their best shot, but fortunately we gave them ours too. We believed we could come in here and win this game,” said ISU Head Football Coach Dan McCarney. “I’m really happy for my seniors. To finish with three wins over Iowa is a great mark for those guys.” The Cyclones built a 17-7 lead and then wasted several chances to increase the lead. The Hawkeyes capitalized by scoring on a 8-yard touchdown pass from Scott Mullen to Kahlil Hill with 9:30 left setting the stage for the crucial Cyclone drive. With the momentum in the Hawkeyes’ favor, the Cyclones marched 79 yards on 10 plays, capped off by Rosenfels’ touchdown run. Rosenfels completed three passes for 48 yards on the drive. “I thought after Iowa scored in the fourth quarter, the drive by our offense was as good its been since I’ve been at Iowa State. It was great execution. Our offensive line did a great job as did Sage. We challenged our kids because the momentum was really swinging at that time,” McCarney said. The key play of the drive came early as the Cyclones went nowhere on their first two plays setting up a critical third down. Rosenfels fired a 12-yard completion to Craig Campbell to keep the drive alive. “That may have been the biggest play of the game. We wanted to get outside and give me a chance to run, but the Iowa did a great job of containment. Craig ran through a little crease and made a heck of a catch on a low throw,” Rosenfels said. Rosenfels sparkled in leading the Cyclone offense, which piled up 485 yards of total offense. The Cyclones have gone over the 400-yard plateau in their first three games, which is a school record. Rosenfels went 17-of-26 for 228 yards through the air and added 66 rushing yards and a pair of touchdowns on the ground. “He’s [Rosenfels] sharp. He leads and has great intangibles. He’s got 14 games under his belt now and you can see his maturity out there,” McCarney said. The Cyclones didn’t take long to score. On their first play from scrimmage the Cyclones ran a reverse and J.J. Moses went 58 yards for the touchdown. Moses scored after racing down the sideline, making a cutback and faking out three Hawkeye defenders in the process. “J.J. is one of the biggest playmakers on this team. We didn’t think that is was going to go for a touchdown. We just went with a little misdirection trying to get some positive yards, and there was just tremendous execution,” McCarney said. The Hawkeyes answered with a score of their own a short touchdown pass Mullen to Kevin Kasper. Kasper caught four passes 29 yards on the Hawkeye scoring drive. Mike McKnight hit a 22-yard field goal to increase the Cyclone lead to 10-7, and Rosenfels scored from a yard out on an option keeper, and the Cyclones took a 17-7 lead into halftime. Each team missed scoring chances in the final minute of the half. McKnight missed a 33-yard field goal with 40 seconds left, and then Iowa kicker Nate Kaeding missed one from 39 yards on the final play of the half. The Cyclones missed two more chances to up the lead in the third quarter. McKnight missed another field goal, this one from 27 yards, and Rosenfels threw an interception in Iowa territory. “We made some mistakes, obviously those field goals would’ve helped put some distance in the score, but I’m proud of the effort everybody gave,” McCarney said. The two field goal misses were a surprise to the Cyclones, considering that McKnight was perfect on three field goal tries in last week’s 37-22 victory over UNLV. “We’ve tried everything, we’ve tried the other options, and Mike is the best we have. He was hot as a firecracker last week but cold as ice today. He’s got good mental toughness, and I expect he’ll come back,” said ISU associate head coach Bobby Elliott. The Cyclone defense put together a solid effort. The defense limited the Hawkeyes to 93 rushing yards and 328 total yards. The Hawkeyes struck for a few big plays but couldn’t get any consistent type of attack going. “We had some lapses, but overall I think we played big. We had a couple of big plays on us, but other than that we had a good day. I thought their offensive line did a good job picking up our blitzes,” said ISU defensive lineman Ryan Harklau. The Cyclone secondary hung in there against the Hawkeyes passing attack of Mullen and receivers Kasper and Hill. Mullen threw for 235 yards but only hit for one big pass play. “As a secondary, I thought we did great things. When you hold a team to that many rushing yards, they’re going to come out slinging the ball. They have a great quarterback and some talented receivers so we did some different coverages trying to confuse them, and in the end we were on top,” said ISU free safety Dustin Avey. Elliott is in charge of the Cyclone secondary and was impressed with what he saw from his players. “They got a couple of big chunks on us passing the ball but they also had a lot of attempts, and the yards don’t matter to me. The efficiency with which we played was pretty good. We didn’t give them the big one and that’s what we were concerned with,” Elliott said. The group of 22 seniors on the Cyclone roster, excluding junior college transfers, helped end the Hawkeye control of the series and will end their careers with three victories in the rivalry. “As a senior going out, this is probably one of the best feelings I’ve ever had in my five years here. Just going out knowing that you’ve started a new streak and you’ve no other Cyclone team has done in 18 years,” Avey said. ISU defensive lineman Reggie Hayward didn’t want to hear anything about the 15 previous losses to the Hawkeyes before the current Cyclone winning streak. “I didn’t lose 15 in a row. My record is 3-1 against Iowa. I played them four years and won three, so it feels good,” Hayward said.