Southern Utah University picked up its second victory of the season, a 24-10 win over Eastern New Mexico. The victory evens the Thunderbirds' record at 2-2 with both wins over nationally ranked NCAA Division II schools. The Greyhounds were undefeated and ranked 19th.
SUU's pair of losses were to nationally ranked Division I-AA Idaho and Northern Arizona."It was a good win for us. We did a good job of dominating," SUU head coach Jack Bishop said. "But we should be scoring more points. We can do a lot more things with the football, but we're playing good enough competition that when we make mistakes they usually come back to haunt us."
The T-Birds struck early, driving their first possession 80 yards in 12 plays, capped with a Rick Robins-to-Robbie Gunter 28-yard pass, to take an early 7-0 lead. Early in the second quarter, SUU took advantage of the first of three fumbles by the 'Hounds' top runner, Darrell Whitaker. Just two plays later, Robins passed through the hands of ENM's Kahahn Allan to Micah Deckart for another 28-yard TD.
After blocking a Benji Nelson field goal, the Greyhounds exploded for 64 yards in three plays to close the gap 14-7. The 'Birds marched back to the ENMU 22 to give Nelson another shot at the crossbars. The field goal sent SUU to the locker room leading 17-7 at the half.
The Greyhounds jumped on the second-half kickoff with Whitaker running a 40-yard return. ENMU pushed to the SUU six-yard line, where a fourth-down penalty set them up at the 11 for a Jason Crowson field goal.
Then, SUU's Shawn Jones showed his kickoff return prowess with a 38-yarder of his own. Seven plays later he danced five more yards for a TD and the final 24-10 score.
The T-Birds could have done without the fourth quarter, which netted them another missed field goal, a pass interception and a fumbled fair catch on a punt return. For SUU's sake, the Greyhounds didn't fare much better, coming up with a fourth-down turnover, two punts and a fumble.
"That was probably the worst ending of a game we've ever played," Bishop said. "There were more mistakes in the last few minutes than we've ever made."
Next week, SUU travels to UC Davis for a matchup with their former American West Conference rivals.