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CEDAR CITY—The Southern Utah University football team lost to South Dakota State, 26-6, Saturday night. The loss put SUU at 0-3 while putting SDSU at 2-1. The game was the Thunderbird’s home-opener and homecoming.
SUU has dropped games to Nevada, Southeastern Louisiana and now South Dakota State. Once again SUU had trouble putting points on the board.
SDSU is ranked 10th in both the Sports Network FCS poll and the FCS Coaches poll. They proved worthy of their ranking and came out strong against SUU.
SDSU’s first drive of the game resulted in a touchdown after Reggie Gandy rushed for one yard. The second quarter brought two more touchdowns for SDSU, making it 21-0 for the Jackrabbits heading into the half. SUU held SDSU to one field goal in the third, but SUU was still having a rough time on the offensive end.
In the fourth quarter, the Thunderbirds finally scored, with Toa Afatasi rushing for the touchdown. SUU opted to go for the two-point conversion, after the PAT was moved back to the 17-yard line, because of an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. However, the ball was intercepted by SDSU’s Trey Carr and returned for a two-point try for the SDSU defense, making the final score 26-6.
Overall, the game was messy and full of mistakes for SUU, and SDSU took full advantage. The Jackrabbits rushed for 230 yards compared to the T-birds 150. SDSU’s Zach Zenner led with 142 rushing yards, while SUU struggled to find any momentum in their offensive game.
For the past two weeks, SUU has opted to start Aaron Cantu at quarterback. As the weeks have gone on though, we are beginning to see more of Ammon Olsen. Saturday night, Cantu started but only completed one of his two pass attempts and then had an interception to go along with it. After Cantu was pulled early in the game, Olsen then took over. He completed eight passes on 19 attempts but had two interceptions.
Olsen ended up with 94 passing yards and 62 rushing. Chris Robinson had five catches, totaling 75 yards, while Raysean Pringle led with 65 rushing yards for SUU.
Once again James Cowser and Chinedu Ahanonu led on the defensive side for SUU with 12 tackles each.
SUU will travel to Fresno State next week to take on their second FBS team of the season. The game is scheduled to kickoff at 7 p.m. (PT).
