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Indiana rallies to beat Arkansas State 36-34

Oct 16, 2010 - 8:43 PM By MICHAEL MAROT AP Sports Writer

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) -- Indiana quarterback Ben Chappell took hit after hit in the first half Saturday.

He just kept getting up, and eventually punched back.

Chappell threw for 297 yards and three touchdowns in the second half, rallying the Hoosiers for a 36-34 victory over Arkansas State.

The victory allowed Indiana (4-2) to sweep its four nonconference opponents, end a two-game losing streak and regain some momentum as it heads back into conference play next week at Illinois.

Arkansas State was led by Ryan Aplin, who was 33 of 44 for 275 yards with two TD passes, two TD runs and two interceptions. He also set a single-game school record for completions, but the Red Wolves (2-5) still dropped to 0-5 all-time against Big Ten foes.

For 30 minutes, it looked as if Arkansas State might end that drought and earn the second win in school history over a BCS school.

But Chappell's huge second half changed everything.

His first TD pass, a perfect 27-yarder that Terrance Turner nearly plucked off the helmet of Kelcie McCray, gave Indiana its first lead of the game, 19-14, with 4:08 left in the third quarter. The Hoosiers made it 22-14 when Mitch Ewald booted a career-long 46-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter.

That's when the two high-scoring offenses finally started trading jabs.

Aplin used a 62-yard kickoff return to get the Red Wolves back in the game on Sirgregory Thornton's 6-yard TD run. The conversion pass failed, making it 22-20 with 11:39 to go.

Then it was Chappell's turn to fight back. He took the Hoosiers 60 yards in five plays, hooking up with Max Dedmond on a 16-yard TD pass with 10:04 left.

Aplin followed that with a 5-yard TD pass to Dwayne Frampton to make it 29-27 with 8:05 still to play, and Chappell wasted no time making up for that.

On Indiana's next offensive play, he hooked up with a wide open Damarlo Belcher, who got behind the secondary and broke one tackle on his way to a 65-yard score that made it 36-27.

Aplin finished the game with a 22-yard TD pass to Thornton with 47 seconds left, but the onside kick went out of bounds and Indiana ran out the clock.

Chappell was 26 of 42 for 382 yards with four TDs. Senior Trea Burgess, who replaced the injured Darius Willis in Indiana's lineup, ran 19 times for 102 yards. Tandon Doss caught eight passes for 103 yards and a score, and Belcher had six catches for 121 yards.

Frampton set a new Arkansas State record with 12 receptions in the game, finishing with 93 yards and one TD.