CEDAR CITY, Utah -- The Thunderbird football team picked up their third victory of the season on Saturday at Eccles Coliseum, knocking off Northern Arizona and reclaiming the Grand Canyon Trophy with a 31-30 win.
"I'm just proud of the guys," SUU head coach Demario Warren said. "We've been trying to work on getting better each and every week. We knew how big this game was. We were 2-2 at home, we wanted to send the seniors off with a win at home and make sure the home crowd saw more wins than losses. Against unranked opponents we'd have a winning record now. I've got to take my hat off to NAU, those guys played their butts off. Case Cookus is one of the best quarterbacks in Big Sky history and it's been fun competing against him if it's his last year."
The Thunderbirds were able to score on their opening drive of the game, as Manny Berz knocked home a 24-yard field goal attempt. That gave SUU a 3-0 lead. NAU responded with a field goal of their own to tie up the game at 3-3.
After the first quarter ran out, the Lumberjacks were able to strike again as Case Cookus found Brandon Porter from 31 yards away to put NAU up 10-3.
The Thunderbirds responded with a touchdown of their own, as a trick play resulted in a 44-yard touchdown pass from Chris Helbig to Thomas Duckett and tied up the game 10-10.
On NAU's next drive, they were able to put seven more points on the board to take a 17-10 lead.
The scoring continued on the next drive for SUU, as Duckett broke into the endzone for SUU for the second time. To tie the game up at 17-17, though, he did it on the ground.
With about two minutes remaining before the opening half ran out, the Lumberjacks added another field goal to take a 20-17 lead. That remained the score at the break.
The high scoring continued as the second half commenced. On SUU's first drive of the second half the Thunderbirds scored on an 11-play, 90-yard drive capped by a Karris Davis touchdown run. SUU took the lead at that point, 24-20.
The Lumberjacks were quick to respond, as they had a seven-play, 69-yard drive to re-take the lead 27-24.
Southern Utah scored again on their next drive, keeping the momentum switching back-and-forth. Duckett scored his third touchdown of the game from 54 yards away, and the T-Birds went back ahead 31-27.
As the fourth quarter started the Lumberjacks added another field goal to cut the T-Bird lead to one, 31-30.
From there, the T-Bird defense took over. The Thunderbirds didn't give up another point to NAU, including a fourth down stop on their one yard line, and SUU secured their third victory at home this season.
Duckett was the star for the Thunderbirds. He rushed for 130 yards and two touchdowns, along with catching five passes for 81 yards and another touchdown.
Helbig was incredibly efficient, completing 22-of-27 passes for 290 yards. Karris Davis also had a score on the ground for SUU.
Alex Sims finished the game with eight tackles. Bishop Jones had seven tackles and one sack.
For the Lumberjacks, Case Cookus finished with 325 yards through the air and one touchdown. Brandon Porter was his top target, catching 10 passes for 151 yards and one touchdown.
The T-Birds will wrap up their season next weekend against the Fighting Hawks of North Dakota.
Keep tabs on the Thunderbirds throughout the entire Big Sky Kickoff by following @SUUFB on Twitter and Instagram and by liking the Southern Utah Football page on Facebook.
Single game tickets and season tickets are available for the remainder of the 2019 campaign at www.tbirdtickets.com or at the America First Event Center Ticket Office.
Plays of the Game
