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Hawkeyes fall short against Nittany Lions | National

IOWA CITY – Too little. Too late.

Iowa reintroduced itself to the end zone Saturday night, but a fourth-quarter touchdown wasn’t enough to prevent the Hawkeyes from suffering a 17-12 loss to 10th-ranked Penn State at Kinnick Stadium.

A 33-yard touchdown pass from Nate Stanley to Brandon Smith with 2 minutes, 31 seconds remaining ended an eight-quarter touchdown drought by the 17th-ranked Hawkeyes against Big Ten defenses, but that wasn’t enough to counter a pair of costly Iowa mistakes.

The unbeaten Nittany Lions secured their sixth win of the season by turning the two second-half Iowa turnovers into 10 points, just enough offense to hand the Hawkeyes a second straight loss.

"We’re doing the right things, we’ve just got to do them," Iowa defensive end A.J. Epenesa said. "We just have to do a little better."

A 5-yard touchdown run by Noah Cain with 5:17 remaining in the game proved to be the difference.

Cain’s score on a second-down play capped an eight-play, 35-yard drive which chewed more than four minutes off the clock after Jaquan Brisker stepped in front of a Nate Stanley pass and returned his first interception of the season four yards.

Trailing 17-6, Iowa turned to Stanley, and the senior quarterback connected on 7-of-11 passes during the ensuing drive.

Part of a 25-of-43 passing performance that covered 286 yards, Stanley threw for 86 of the Hawkeyes’ 87 yards on the drive and recovered his own fumble to gain a first down on at the 33 before hitting Smith with Iowa’s first touchdown against a Big Ten defense since the third quarter of Iowa’s conference opener against Rutgers.

A third-quarter fumble by Tyler Goodson allowed the Nittany Lions to add to a 7-6 halftime lead when Jake Pinegar connected on a 33-yard field goal.

The kick came after Penn State missed multiple opportunities to make its lead even larger after Jan Johnson recovered the Goodson fumble forced by PJ Mustipher at the Iowa 16-yard line.

A replay review overturned a call on the field that tight end Pat Freiermuth had reached the end zone on a 16-yard pass play, placing the ball inside the 1 where, after a pair of holding calls, the Nittany Lions were ultimately forced to settle for the field goal by the sophomore from Ankeny, Iowa.

Cain led the Nittany Lions with 102 rushing yards, while Goodson paced Iowa with 35 of the 70 yards Iowa rushed for during the game.

"Our communication wasn’t where it needed to be and that led to some mistakes," Epenesa said.

Penn State (6-0, 3-0 Big Ten) put together the only touchdown drive of the opening half and took a 7-6 lead into the locker room at the break.

The Nittany Lions’ KJ Hamler made a head-over-heels leap into the end zone to finish off a 22-yard pass play and a 15-play, 85-yard scoring drive.

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Hamler’s effort on the third-and-7 play and the ensuing PAT kick by Pinegar gave Penn State a 7-3 advantage with 8:36 remaining the second quarter.

The score erased a lead Iowa had taken in the opening quarter on the first of two Keith Duncan field goals in the opening half.

The first allowed Iowa (4-2, 1-2) to score the first points Penn State has allowed in the first quarter of a game this season, splitting the uprights from 47 yards with 2:12 left in the first quarter.

It capped an 11-play drive that saw Stanley connect on all six of his pass attempts.

Duncan sent a 44-yard field goal try wide right with 5:01 left in the half, but the junior had one more chance after Iowa regained possession of the ball with 1:42 to play in the second quarter.

Stanley worked quickly to position Iowa to trim the Nittany Lions’ lead to a single point.

Consecutive passes of 25 and 11 yards to Nate Wieting — the first receptions of the season by the Iowa tight end — moved the ball into Penn State territory, and after Stanley hit Ihmir Smith-Marsette with a 36-yard strike, the Hawkeyes had a first-and-goal from the five.

Mekhi Sargent lost one yard on a carry prior to a pair of incompletions, forcing Iowa to settle for a 24-yard field goal by Duncan with :20 to play in the half and a 7-6 deficit at the break.

This article originally ran on qctimes.com .