Sept. 19, 2004

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Fred Amey scored on five- and 50-yard touchdown passes as Sacramento State held off a charging Southern Utah team to even its record at 1-1 while SUU fell to 1-1 with a 23-17 loss to the Hornets.

Southern Utah battled back from a 17-3 fourth quarter deficit to tie the game at 17-17 after Casey Rehrer and ryan Felipe each scored on one-yard runs but the Hornets took the lead on a 50-yard Ryan Leadingham to Fred Amey pass to go up 23-17 with 5:46 to play, then held on for the win.

Southern Utah had an opportunity to tie or win the game late but Jerome Eason was stripped of the ball on the 12 yard line with 2:14 to play and Sacramento State was able to hang on and win the game.

"I though Jerome might have been down on that play and a disappointing thing was the officials didn't seem to be sure either, they had to conference for a while before they made the call but when they did they called it a fumble," SUU Coach Wes Meier said after the game. "I don't want to shift the spotlight onto whether the officials made the right call or not though, it's just disappointing we got down that close then didn't have a chance to score.

"We had a slow start and Sacramento State did a good job of making big plays when they needed them, particularly in the first half," he added. "We did a much better job in the second half but they got one big play when they needed it and it proved to be the difference."

That play was Amey's 50-yard TD reception, a play where he was surrounded by three Thunderbirds but somehow managed to pull in the ball, then sliip through the defense before sprinting the final 35 yards to the end zone.

"The wierd thing about that play is we had him pretty well covered," Meier noted. "I'm still not sure how he was able to slip away and score.Thre was a miscommunication in the coverage and it really hurt us."

Rehrer completed 26 of 38 passes for 248 yards while Leadingham finished 16-28 for 220 yards with two TD passes and an interception.