Southern Utah University picked up its first win with a 41-26 romp over former Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference rival Western State College.
"I've never in my life been so nervous for a football game. We just couldn't put them away," SUU head coach Jack Bishop said. "That's the most we've ever dominated a game without blowing it away. Every time we made a mistake we ended up giving away points."The T-Birds took a quick lead, their first of the season, when Rick Robins connected with Robbie Gunter on a 57-yard pass on SUU's first possession. A one-yard run by Curtis Lindsey put the Birds on the board 7-0.
That's when Western State started taking advantage of T-Bird mistakes. The Division II Mountaineers picked up a Thunderbird fumble on the SUU 30 and punched in a 14-yard pass to knot the score at seven. Then on Southern Utah's next possession, Western State blocked a Benji Nelson field goal attempt to set up an 85-yard drive and take the lead 14-7.
Southern Utah picked up a pair of touchdowns on short runs by Benji Hoskins and Phil Atkerson to take a 21-14 halftime lead.
Western State jumped on another T-Bird miscue and picked off a pass early in the second half for another six points from a 64-yard drive. A missed extra point left them trailing by one.
Southern Utah's Shawn Jones picked up the pace late in the third quarter with an 81-yard touchdown run, then pushed in a two-yard TD set up by a fumble recovery and a Curtis Lindsey to Melvin Lowe 25-yard halfback pass.
Western State never gave up, taking their only drive from a kickoff 61 yards to pull the score 35-26, but SUU let out the Mountaineers' steam by thwarting a faked punt on the T-Bird 14, setting Robins up for a 12-yard pass to Lindsey for the final 41-26 score. The missed extra point by Benji Nelson was his first in 107 attempts. But for other stats, Robins moved into first place for pass completions at SUU hitting nine of 16 on the night and bumping the new record to 270.
Next week the T-Birds host Divison II Eastern New Mexico.