CEDAR
CITY, Utah, Oct. 24 - Cade Cooper completed 31-of-45 passes for 295 yards
and four touchdowns and SUU got its interception return for a touchdown since
2004 Saturday as Southern Utah rolled to a 35-10 Homecoming win over Great West
Conference opponent North Dakota.
Cooper
hooked up with Tysson Poots twice, on 7- and 9-yard TD passes, and found Austin Minefee and Fesi Sitake for scores of six and 10 yards, then Erron Vonner put
the icing on the cake with a 12-yard interception return for a score to give
SUU a 35-3 lead before North Dakota finally got its first TD on an eight yard
Brent Goska run with 1:46 to play.
Southern
Utah took the opening kickoff and marched 68 yards on seven plays to take an
early 7-0 lead but on its next possession Cooper was intercepted by Tyson
Heiser on the 21 yard line and the SUU offense sputtered through much of the
rest of the half.
The
Thunderbird defense, however, was stifling North Dakota, limiting the Sioux to
just a 26-yard Brandon Hellevang field goal. Sitake's touchdown gave SUU a 14-0
lead, and after Helvang's field goal pulled the Fighting Sioux within 14-3 they
had a chance to cut into the margin after a snap sailed over punter Trevor Ward's head.
Jarrel
Davis and Mitch Sutton sacked Ward at the SUU eight yard line after the bad
snap and UND drove to the two before an offensive pass interference call backed
the Sioux up to the 17. Two plays later
Hellevang was the victim of a bad snap of his own and he missed a
33-yard field goal attempt, wide right. On
its ensuing possession, Southern Utah was unable to move the ball and was
forced to punt but one of the biggest momentum changers of the game came as
Ryan Dressler muffed the punt reception and Akeem Anifowoshe recovered at the
UND 27 with 56 seconds to play in the half.
The
Thunderbirds were able to convert the turnover into Minefee's touchdown
reception and SUU took a 21-3 edge into halftime.
The
Thunderbirds tacked on the second Cooper-to-Poots TD with 8:45 to go in the
third, then midway through the fourth Vonner's interception sealed the win.
"With
regard to the defense I was very pleased, especially the secondary," SUU Coach
Ed Lamb said. "In the time I've been at Southern Utah I don't think I'v e seen
as many three-and-outs as we saw today."
There
were five true three-and-outs, but two more UND drives took just two plays as
SUU was able to take advantage of an interception and a fumble to shorten those
drives. In all, SUU's defense got four take-ways, two interceptions - the
other was by Colin Pretlow at the end of the third period - and two fumble
recoveries, Anifowoshe's and one by Matt Holley late in the game.
"We
were able to win the take-away battle today and that was significant," Lamb
added. "Our players were aggressive going to the ball.
"I'm
very pleased with the offense, they threw everything they had at us today,"
Lamb added. "Cade showed tremendous poise."
Southern
Utah finished with 345 passing yards as freshman Ammon Olsen came on late to
complete a 50-yarder to Mitch Jessop before taking a knee twice inside the UND
five yard line. Minefee had eight receptions for 61 yards while Sitake caught
seven balls for 102 yards and Poots caught seven for another 61 yards. Major Gray led the SUU rushing attack with 75 yards on 11 carries, while Minfee
finished with 44 yards on 13 attempts. SUU finished with 107 yards on the
ground.
North
Dakota did most of its damage on the ground, getting 212 yards, 81 by
quarterback Jake Landry and 74 by Goska, also a quarterback. The Sioux finished
with 126 passing yards, as Landry completed 6-of-19 for 81 yards but threw both
interceptions while Goska completed 4-of-6 for 45 yards.
Troy Bunting led the SUU offense with eight tackles, including one sack, while
Vonner had seven tackles, broke up two passes and was in on a tackle-for-loss.
SUU had three sacks, its most of the season.
Dominique
Hawkins paced the UND defense with 12 tackles.
