Southern Utah jumps out to early lead and rolls past Texas State
The Texas State Bobcats (2-2) fell to Southern Utah Saturday in San Marcos failing to match SUU's intensity early on. SUU (2-3) was looking to get off to a fast start and was able to do so as they took an early lead after recovering a Texas State fumble and went on to a convincing 34-20 win.
The first few seconds of the game was not what Bobcat's head coach Brad Wright hoped to see. His special teams coughed up the opening kick off and SUU took full advantage of the outstanding field position as Deckar Alexander ran for an 8-yard touchdown on their third play of the game. "We were very fortunate we got some breaks early in the game," said SUU head coach Ed Lamb. "I give our guys credit for responding and taking advantage of those situations."
The Bobcats struggled to find any offensive rhythm in the first half of play and after being stopped on a fourth-and-one near midfield; SUU took over possession of the ball and settled for a field goal a few plays later and a 10-0 lead. Kennie Apilli tacked on another touchdown for SUU at the 2:03 mark of the first quarter when he got around the right side on a 25-yard touchdown run allowing SUU to move out to a 17-0 lead.
SUU experienced a fair amount of success against the Bobcat defense early on with Alexander and teammate Cody Stone going on to rush for 191 yards on the night. Stone needed just five carries to pile up his total of 72 yards on the ground.
The Bobcat's defense provided a spark with 14:33 to go in the second quarter when Kenneth Hampton intercepted a pass to allow the offense to take over at the SUU 30-yard line. Bobcat quarterback Clint Toon wasted no time making sure they capitalized on the turnover as he got the offense moving with a couple of completions and running back Stan Zwinggi pitched in with a nice run for almost ten yards. With the ball now at the Bobcat 48-yard line, Karrington Bush headed around the right end and raced 52-yards for the first Bobcat touchdown of the game to cut the SUU lead to 17-7.
SUU came right back to score again after driving into Bobcat territory as Steve Pulver booted a 51-yard field goal with just over six minutes to play. The 50-plus yard field was just one yard
shy of his career-long and put the SUU lead at 20-7. Each team would miss on field goal attempts with less than a minute to go in the half resulting in the 20-7 score unchanged going into halftime.
If the Bobcats had any hopes of turning things around in the second half they were quickly dashed when SUU scored two third quarter touchdowns. The first touchdown came on a Nick Miller 30-yard reception and then Tysson Poots pulled down an 18-yard touchdown pass of his own sending the SUU lead to 34-7.
It would be the fourth-quarter before the Bobcats would find the end zone again and it would come on Darren Dillard's first career touchdown catch. With 13:20 to play Clint Toon found Dillard for a 20-yard scoring strike to shave the SUU lead to 34-13 after a failed two point conversion. With hopes of a late game comeback, quarterback Bradley George was called upon to replace Toon at quarterback and he responded by leading the Bobcats on an 81-yard scoring drive that was finished off with a 20-yard touchdown reception by Cameron Luke to bring the Bobcats to within 34-20 with 3:39 to play in the game.
The Bobcats comeback attempt later fell short at the SUU 32-yard line as the Bobcats came up short on fourth down. SUU took possession and was able to run out the clock for the 34-20 win. "I think this Texas State team is a good quality opponent so I am happy with the progress the guys made in a week," said Lamb.
As for the Bobcats, they now try and put this loss behind them and look ahead to next week's game against Texas Southern. "We just need to watch film. We will have to get up every day and just get ready for the next game," said Clint Toon. And making sure his team is ready to play is something Wright takes full responsibility for, "I guess it's my fault as a head coach for having a poorly prepared football team. And that's basically the bottom line," said Wright. "We're going to continue coaching hard and we will be a better football team next week."
