Cedar City, Utah - The Thunderbird football team shutout their second straight Big Sky Conference opponent on Saturday night at the Eccles Coliseum, as they defeated the Sacramento State Hornets 44–0.

SUU head coach Ed Lamb said he was pleased with how the team played in all facets of the game.

“I'm really pleased with the way our guys played,” he said. “Offense, defense, special teams, they had the instinct to keep going and not let up, and I think that's a critical skill that we need to develop and there in the second quarter a few times we weathered the storm when the momentum wasn't necessarily going our way our guys kept fighting and got back the momentum. I'm very proud of the way they played tonight.”

The Thunderbird defense has yet to allow a touchdown in Big Sky play, shutting out CSUS and Weber State, and only allowing a field goal against Northern Colorado. SUU has outscored their last four opponents 173–10, and are only giving up one point per game in the Big Sky.

SUU safety Miles Killebrew said he credits to two shutouts to the preparation the team has throughout the week.  

“Our coaches do a very good job of preparing us each week for our assignments,” he said. “We don't do anything out of the ordinary, we just have each others backs on defense and just do our assignments and the results show.”

The Thunderbirds put three touchdowns on the board in the first quarter, which were all throws from quarterback Ammon Olsen. The first one was from 10 yards out to Mike Sharp, which capped off a two minute drive, which was seven plays long and went 75 yards.

The second touchdown of the first quarter was a 40-yard pass from Olsen to wide receiver Justin Brown, and the third score of the quarter came when Olsen hit Sharp for a second time, this time from 32 yards away, to put the Thunderbirds up 21–0.

No points were scored again until there was under six minutes to play in the third quarter, when Olsen hit Brown again from 48 yards away to cap an 80-yard drive that only lasted just over a minute.

During SUU's scoring drought the rain picked up a little bit and the weather took a turn for the worst, but Olsen said that wasn't the only factor that led to the lack of offense in the second quarter.

“We kind of got comfortable,” he said. “We kind of started to coast, and the coaches talked about that before the game, just don't stop and coast, and I think the rain didn't help and they changed their defensive schemes at the same time, so a little bit of everything. But it was a good lesson for us and hopefully it won't happen again.”

Following a Keita Calhoun field goal, Sharp struck again from 50 yards away to extend the Thunderbird lead. The final score of the contest came with just over eight minutes to play, when Naia Ursua ran a ball in from 12 yards out to put SUU up 44–0, which would be the final score of the contest.

Ammon Olsen threw for 421 yards in the game and five touchdowns, completing three TD's to Sharp and two to Brown.

Olsen tied the school record for touchdown passes in a game, which ties him with former Thunderbird QB's Brad Sorensen and James Armendariz.

Sharp finished the game with 154 yards receiving, and Brown finished the game with 160.

Running back Malik Brown had another 100-yard plus performance Saturday night, carrying the ball 16 times for 105 yards.

This was the first game the Thunderbirds had played under newly appointed offensive coordinator Justin Walterscheid, which Sharp said played a factor.

“Coach takes his job seriously, he was my receivers coach so I knew we were in good hands,” he said. “I think there was a little bit of difference, but it was the same plays.”

The Thunderbird defense accumulated five sacks in the game, and 10 tackles for loss. Kyle Hannemann had the Thunderbirds lone interception on the night, and was able to carry it back 52 yards.

Hornet quarterback Nate Ketteringham threw for 117 yards on 14 attempts, but was sacked four times and threw an interception. His top target was Nnamdi Agude, who caught four passes for 54 yards.