Opening the season on the road against a Football Championship Subdivision team with a game already under its belt isn’t a recipe for success.
Adding seven turnovers to the mix doesn’t help, either.
Southern Utah scored 42 points in the first half en route to a 49-0 rout of the Fort Lewis College football team on Saturday in Cedar City, Utah, in first game of the John L. Smith era at FLC.
Turnovers were killer for the Skyhawks, who had intermittent levels of success moving the ball at times in the first half. After Southern Utah went up 7-0 on its first possession, quarterback Jordan Doyle and running back Amery Duncan botched a handoff, and SUU’s Matt Holley scooped it up and went 23 yards for a 14-0 Thunderbirds’ lead.
On the Skyhawks’ next possession, they started picking up offensive momentum, driving into the Southern Utah red zone. But Miles Killebrew scooped up a Dewaun Wesley fumble and went 87 yards for a backbreaking score and a 21-0 lead for SUU to end the first quarter.
Doyle fumbled in the second quarter after Fort Lewis (0-1) again drove into the red zone, and the return went for 52 yards, leading to an Aaron Cantu touchdown pass to Anthony Norris from eight yards out and a 28-0 lead for SUU. On FLC’s very next offensive play, the Skyhawks fumbled again, and Cantu found Norris again from 19 yards out to push the lead to 35-0.
The Skyhawks made it three turnovers on three consecutive offensive plays when Doyle was intercepted by Tommy Collet Jr. to open the next drive. And, as had become the pattern, Cantu capped that drive with another touchdown pass, this one of six yards to Easton Pedersen for a 42-0 advantage.
All told, the Skyhawks committed seven total turnovers – five fumbles and two interceptions.
Fort Lewis also had trouble moving the chains on third down offensively and getting off the field on third down defensively, converting just 3 of 11 third-down opportunities to 8 of 13 for the Thunderbirds.
Doyle finished the night 18 of 29 passing for 166 yards and two interceptions, completing passes to eight different receivers. The running game had trouble getting out of neutral, accounting for only 48 yards of FLC’s 214 yards of total offense.
Thanks to turnovers, short fields and the effort of the FLC defense, Southern Utah finished with 344 yards of total offense, but the Thunderbirds racked up an impressive 208 yards on the ground. Cantu finished with four touchdown passes and was 15 of 16 passing for 136 yards.
Fort Lewis will try and end an 11-game losing streak at 1 p.m. Saturday in the home opener against Oklahoma Baptist at Ray Dennison Memorial Field.
heraldsports@durangoherald.com
