MANHATTAN, Kansas — The Cyclones left Manhattan, Kansas, with their seventh win of the season after surviving a shootout with Kansas State 42-35.

With the combination of Abu Sama III breaking off long touchdown runs and Rocco Becht finding his receivers for big plays, the Cyclones kept up with Kansas State’s offense all night. The snow did not put a damper on Iowa State’s upset win on the road to close the regular season.

Sama sets up home in Kansas State’s end zone

With Iowa State’s No. 1 and 2 running backs staying home for the final game of the regular season, it was up to Sama to put the run game on his back.

“He was due for another big game,” Becht said.

Sama did just that. He had a big game.

Sama took the handoff on the first play of the game and rushed into open space. One play, 71 yards and Sama already had a touchdown to put the Cyclones up early.

Taking the first play of the game for a touchdown in Manhattan gave the Cyclones flashbacks to the last time they played in Kansas State’s home. Another special running back put up a similarly good start.

“He’s powerful. He’s special. I thought obviously he was exceptional tonight,” Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell said. “I think the last time we were here a guy ran the first play for a touchdown, and yeah, he was pretty special.”

At the start of the second quarter, Sama broke away again. After barely staying on his feet behind the line of scrimmage, Sama slipped to the outside and flew past every Kansas State defender in sight.

Sama one-upped his 71-yard touchdown from earlier by taking the touchdown 77 yards to the house. By the start of the second quarter, Sama was up to 161 yards and two touchdowns.

By the half, Sama had nearly eclipsed the 200-rushing yard mark. Adding on his receiving yards, Sama was up to 208 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns.

With time running out in the third quarter, Iowa State trailed again. Sama took the ball into his hands and broke off another big run. Although it was not as long as his others, Sama still took the ball 60 yards to the end zone.

Sama was nearing 300 yards and had three touchdowns on the day. The first Cyclone to break past the 200-yard mark and three-touchdown mark since Breece Hall in 2021.

“Breece Hall was pretty good as a true freshman, but, yeah, this guy’s pretty good,” Campbell said.

With Sama getting Kansas State’s attention, it was time for another group to step up and take over the game.

Big plays galore

The big reason that Iowa State kept up with Kansas State was not just because of Sama. Iowa State was ripping off big plays consistently to retake leads throughout the second half.

After a quiet first half, Becht made sure everyone knew who he was by connecting with Noel on a 79-yard pass. At that time in the game, Iowa State had three touchdowns all on plays of over 70 yards.

Higgins got into the mix later too, as he combined for 55 yards on back-to-back plays for a touchdown.

Halfway through the final quarter, Iowa State was tied with Kansas State. Big passing plays kept the game close for Iowa State.

“We knew what we were gonna come out and do today,” Becht said. “We just had to stay resilient through the whole game.”

Big plays were coming easy and the Cyclones were not ready to stop rolling.

Facing a long third-down play, Becht found Noel again on the sideline. However, with defenders bearing down, it looked as though a punt was coming in. That was until Noel made a jump cut up the field.

“At first, I’m like what in the heck is he doing? Just get the first down,” Campbell said.

But Noel wanted more than just a first down.

Noel looked like he was going to be swallowed up on third-and-15 but slipped backward out of a tackle and shot forward into second gear. Noel turned what would have been a loss of yards into an 82-yard touchdown, and Iowa State was back on top, and that lead would stay.

Although Campbell was worried at the start of the play, he was happy with the final result.

“[Noel’s] third-and-15 play was one of the best football plays I’ve ever seen,” Campbell said.

The Cyclones finished the game with another long touchdown play. Throughout the night, the Cyclones never ran a single play in the red zone.

They just did not need to.

The Cyclones conquer the snow in the end

The back-and-forth against Kansas State was mainly due to the mistakes that cropped up on the defensive side of the ball. Most of those mistakes were also because of the whirlwind of snow that fell all night long.

Even though the defense struggled throughout the night, the real issues started on special teams.

With a minute left in the first half, Kansas State was forced to punt after going three-and-out. However, the punt fell shorter than expected and bounced into the butt of Caleb Bacon.

A mob of Kansas State players lept on the ball and recovered the muffed punt amidst the confusion. Kansas State took over with time running down in the half.

“I think the biggest thing in this game was the special teams factor,” Campbell said. “As you saw, man, it’s just goofy.”

Along with that, Iowa State defenders slipped off Kansas State players consistently on tackles. One play midway through the third quarter saw Jeremiah Cooper, Beau Freyler and T.J. Tampa all miss tackles as the Wildcats pounced into the red zone.

Along with the missed tackles, Iowa State defenders could not get ahold of interceptions.

Bacon dropped two picks on the drive following his muffed punt. Even Cooper dropped a pair of interceptions after being a magnet all season long.

The snow was causing slight issues on defense, and Kansas State was taking advantage of that.

“Honestly, snow is usually a little bit better than rain, just because you can still function in it,” Campbell said.

Gerry Vaughn was the Cyclone with the first interception of the game after a slew of dropped picks. Vaughn lept up and snatched the ball out of the air to give Iowa State another chance at points.

Myles Purchase played a solid game, keeping defenders locked down all night. Despite that, he also dropped a pick late in the game.

However, Purchase did not let that drop get him down as he locked in for the final drive of the game. Kansas State was hunting a touchdown and made it deep in the red zone.

After three plays falling short, the Wildcats targeted Purchase in the corner of the end zone.

It was Purchase who got the last laugh in the end.

“He prepared himself for this moment, so I’m proud of him,” Vaughn said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that he’ll continue to do good things.”

Iowa State stopped Kansas State from coming back and pulled out the upset win on the road. The Cyclones finished their regular season 7-5 in dramatic fashion.

“Props to K-State, they came out and played a helluva game tonight,” Becht said.