POCATELLO, Idaho - Idaho State's offense scored 28 unanswered points in the first half and held Southern Utah to just 117 yards of offense in the first half as the Bengals handed Southern Utah a 38-13 loss to open the 2005 season.
Southern Utah committed a handful of costly mistakes early in the game that either killed drives of its own or prolonged Bengal drives and the result was a 14-0 deficit and no momentum going into the second period. The Thunderbirds committed back-to-back illegal procedure fouls on third down during its first drive, forcing a third-and-long play that came up short; then on its second possession the Thunderbirds committed another false start to bring up third-and-long again. On its third possession SUU again found itself in third-and-long but this time the Bengals did the damage themselves, knocking down a Zac Connor pass and forcing the Thunderbirds to punt again.
"We had way too many mistakes early in the game," SUU Coach Wes Meier pointed out. "We had some penalties that basically took us out of drives, we had a couple of penalties that helped them prolong drives and we just couldn't get any momentum going. We had a hard time protecting the quarterback and sometimes Zac was able to get free and make something happen but there were a lot of plays where he didn't have much chance."
Idaho State got a pair of first period TDs on a three-yard Ken Cornist run and a six-yard pass from Matt Hagler to Akila Lacey, then pushed its advantage to 28-0 in the second quarter on a 20-yard Cornist run and a 1-yard plunge by Hagler . SUU finally got on the board via a 26-yard pass from Connors to Joey Hew Len with 50 seconds to play in the half. Connors found Hew Len in the right corner of the end zone and threw it up where the 6-3 junior was the only person who could get to it.
Cornist added another ISU score on a one-yard run in the third period before Connors and Hew Len hooked up on another score, this one going 59 yards as Connors lofted the ball high along the right sideline and Hew Len ran under it, then out-ran the defense for the score. ISU added a field goal early in the fourth to account for the final score.
"Tonight's game was a struggle, no doubt about it, but we're going to get better," Meier said. "It was the first game of the season, on the road, in a tough place for road teams to play. We've got a lot of new faces and it's going to take some time but I think most of the things we saw tonight are things we can fix, problems we can work on. With this many young guys we have to have some patience."
Southern Utah finished with 241 yards passing but just 18 on the ground. Idaho State finished with 407 yards of offense, getting 210 through the air and 197 rushing.
Connors, getting his first start as a Thunderbird, completed 16-of-30 passes for 232 yards and two touchdowns, although he was also picked off twice. Hagler, who was also getting his first start for the Bengals, completed 18-of-32 passes with one TD.
Steve Smith led the SUU defense with eight tackles, including six solo stops.
