Iowa State defensive end Dale Pierson returns an interception during the second quarter at Jack Trice Stadium on Saturday in Ames. Photo by Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune
Not often is there the type of pressure on a football team to win its season-opener as there would have seemed to be for Iowa State on Saturday. Even rarer would a second-quarter play in a season-opener seem so very important.
But when Dale Pierson intercepted Northern Iowa’s Aaron Bailey on the ninth play of the second stanza, it certainly felt like an ever-so-significant moment for the Cyclones, who scored 31 unanswered points following the pick to defeat Northern Iowa, 31-7.