CEDAR CITY — Coming into the 2007 season, Southern Utah defensive coordinator Cole Wilson said he believed the Thunderbird football squad had signed two of its best recruiting classes ever the past two years.
Saturday morning those young guys backed up Wilson's claim as the defense intercepted five passes, tallied seven sacks, broke up a handful of passes and kept the offense out of the end zone. A good percentage of the big plays were made by players in either their first or second seasons with the Thunderbirds.
Redshirt freshman cornerback Chris Bonica had four tackles, two sacks and an interception. True freshman defensive end Cody Heinreich had a pair of sacks and broke up a pass. True freshman safety Tui Siliva had three tackles, with a sack, an interception and a quarterback-hurry. And true freshman corner Colin Pretlow figured in just one play, but it was a big one as he intercepted a Cody Stone pass to stop a scoring drive inside the 20-yard line.
"I really have a lot of respect for the job our young guys have been doing," Wilson said. "They're pushing our veterans, and they'll continue to push our veterans. That pressure is making everyone better, everyone is improving, and we expect them to continue to improve."
The freshmen weren't the only newbies to have an impact either. Sophomore defensive end Chad Westwood had four tackles, a sack and broke up a pass, while second-year JC transfer Tyler Moser had five tackles and Jovan Jackson, another JC transfer in his second season, broke up two passes and snared an interception. Junior Zach Samorano, a transfer in his first fall with SUU, had four tackles, and Derrick Brown, a JC transfer who was with the Thunderbirds last year, tallied three tackles with an interception.
That's not to say veterans didn't do their part. Senior La'Var Porter tallied four tackles with a tackle-for-loss. Sophomore linebacker Rob Takeno had four stops and PBU. Junior D.J. Senter had four tackles, while senior DE Jimmy Judd had three with a quarterback hurry, and junior DT Austin Curtis had three stops, including a tackle-for-loss.
"The defense did a great job today," SUU coach Wes Meier Meier said. "We got a lot of hustle out of the defense, and they were ready to go from the start. On the other hand, the offense just wasn't very good today. We had too many turnovers and too many penalties, and we just didn't seem very crisp. Some of the credit there goes to the defense, but some of it was because of mistakes made by the offense."
The Thunderbirds will continue with two-a-day practices on alternating days next week, with just one more scrimmage, next Saturday at 9:15 a.m., scheduled before the season-opener at Montana, Sept. 1.
The Thunderbirds open their home slate Sept. 8 when they host North Dakota.