Iowa City, IA (Sports Network) - Bill Belton ran for 103 yards and three touchdowns as the Penn State Nittany Lions easily defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes, 38-14, in Big Ten Conference action at Kinnick Stadium.
Quarterback Matt McGloin converted 26-of-38 passes for 289 yards and two touchdowns as the Nittany Lions (5-2, 3-0 Big Ten) ran their win streak to five in a row after starting off 2012 with back-to-back defeats against Ohio University and Virginia.
As for the Hawkeyes (4-3, 2-1), they ran for a mere 20 net yards and watched quarterback James Vandenberg struggle as he connected on 17-of-36 passes for 189 yards and a touchdown, while also being picked off twice and sacked four times as the team had a two-game win streak snapped.
Penn State rattled off 38 straight points to begin the night, starting with a 31-yard TD pass from McGloin to Jesse James midway through the first quarter. McGloin added an eight-yard TD pass to Allen Robinson later in the period to make the score 14-0 after 15 minutes of action.
PSU kicker Sam Ficken got in on the act as he knocked through a 34-yard field goal at the 7:19 mark of the second quarter and from there Belton took over. The running back registered an 11-yard TD run in the second to give the Lions a 24-0 advantage at the break.
In the third and fourth periods Belton had scoring runs of three and five yards, respectively, the latter capping a lengthy 14-play, 97-yard drive that consumed more than six minutes of the clock.
On the ensuing kickoff Iowa finally responded as Jordan Cotton raced 92 yards for the team's first points of the contest, cutting the deficit to 38-7 with 14:14 left in the contest.
The visitors had some issues during their possessions in the fourth as they missed a field goal, fumbled the ball away and also had to punt, the turnover giving the Hawkeyes another shot at putting points on the board as Vandenberg hit Keenan Davis with an 18-yard TD to finish the night's scoring.
Penn State controlled the ball for more than 38 minutes as it generated a hefty 504 yards of total offense, while limiting the hosts to just 209 yards.
Game Notes
