BROOKINGS, S.D. — Southern Utah sputtered and dug itself an early hole, then could never dig its way back out Saturday as South Dakota State won 55-7 in a Great West Football Conference matchup.
SDSU's JaRon Harris returned the opening kickoff 86 yards for a touchdown. SDSU scored on each of its first four possessions, including the kickoff return, and shut down the Thunderbird offense in jumping out to a 28-0 lead at the end of the first period.
Meanwhile, Southern Utah was unable to generate any first-period offense. SUU finished the quarter with minus-16 yards of offense, no pass completions and just one first down. SDSU had 172 yards of offense in the quarter.
"We knew we couldn't have a slow start. Every time we have it's cost us," SUU coach Wes Meier said. "It wasn't a good way to start the game and then we just couldn't get anything started. It's a hard game to talk about because it seems like anything and everything that could have gone wrong did."
"South Dakota State is a quality team, they had a good plan, came out and were ready to play today and I'm not sure we were. We felt like we had a good week of preparation, felt like we came out ready to play but when we got out on the field it was just the opposite."
The Thunderbird defense stiffened in the second period, holding SDSU to 93 yards and just a field goal over the first 14 minutes of the quarter, but Scott Breyfogle stepped in front of a Wes Marshall pass with 33 seconds to go in the half and returned it to the SUU 5. That led to a touchdown and a 38-0 advantage.
On SUU's first drive of the second half, Andrew Hoogeveen picked off a Zac Connors pass and returned it 64 yards for a touchdown. SDSU added a TD on a 6-yard Trevor Hohn run and a 39-yard field goal before SUU finally got on the scoreboard with 2:06 to play when Connors hit Jerome Eason in the end zone.