CEDAR CITY, Utah – The Southern Utah University football team had multiple opportunities to score and get stops against Northern Colorado, but could not capitalize on those chances as the Bears went on to earn a 17-9 victory Saturday night at Eccles Coliseum.
The loss dropped SUU to 1-7 on the year and 0-5 in the Big Sky. Northern Colorado improved to 3-5 overall and 2-3 in conference play with the victory.
"Obviously it was another difficult loss," said SUU head coach Demario Warren. "All the guys have put a lot of effort in and continue to work hard, so we just need to have some perspective and stay positive so we can respond. We had a thousand chances out there tonight, but we just didn't play well enough to win the game."
Two of those big chances came on the offensive side of the ball for the Thunderbirds. Early in the third quarter, quarterback Justin Miller led the T-Birds on a drive all the way down to the UNC three-yard line. Southern Utah would go on to lose a yard over the next three plays, and had to settle for a field goal to make the score 10-6 in the Bears' favor.
Later on in the fourth quarter, Miller led the hurry up offense down the field, but the Thunderbirds faced a 3rd and 20 from the Northern Colorado 21-yard line. Miller delivered a strike to his receiver over the middle of the field that would have resulted in a touchdown, but the ball was dropped, and SUU once again could only score three points on the drive.
The defense hung tough all night for Southern Utah and provided opportunities, but the offense was unable to convert. SUU's 17 points allowed were the fewest given up this season and the best output since holding Portland State to 20. The Thunderbirds got a huge lift from Quaid Murray who tallied a career-high 16 tackles. The redshirt junior was in on almost every play for SUU and earned one tackle for loss on the night.
Miller paced the Southern Utah offense with 307 yards passing on 29 completions from 50 attempts. Miller's favorite target on the night was Brandon Schenks who hauled in seven catches for 101 yards, including a 46 yarder. Ethan Bolingbroke also chipped in eight catches for 62 yards.
Noah Alejado provided all of SUU's scoring Saturday night by connecting on three of four field goal attempts. The senior hit from distances of 26, 22 and 39 yards to keep the Thunderbirds close. The Hawaii native's 39-yarder was a career long.
Southern Utah now hits the road again for two games, beginning with a visit to Washington-Grizzly stadium on Saturday, October 30, where the Thunderbirds will do battle with the Grizzlies of Montana. Kickoff is slated for noon MT with live streaming available on ESPN+.
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