Oct. 30, 2005

CEDAR CITY, Utah - North Dakota State capitalized on four Southern Utah turnovers Saturday night, picking off two passes and recovering a pair of fumbles, turning three of the miscues into scores as the Bison took at 37-21 Great West Football Conference win from the Thunderbirds.

Southern Utah gave the ball up on its first two possessions, a Nick Schommer interception of a Zac Connors pass on the 27 yard line which set up a Steve Walker-to-Tyler Jangula touchdown pass; and a Brett Johansen fumble on the SUU 17 which Justin Frick scooped up and and returned for a score and a 13-0 Bison advantage.

Southern Utah rallied back, however, pulling within 13-7 after Shaman Washington muffed a punt and Brian Kofoed recovered on the NDSU four, setting up a Connors to Joey Hew Len TD pass with 7:35 to go in the period.

The Thunderbirds took a 14-13 lead early in the second quarter after Wes Marshall capped a 13-play, 86-yard drive with a one-yard push up the middle, but the Bison answered with an 80-yard drive of their own, re-taking the lead when Kyle Steffes ran one yard for a 20-14 NDSU edge. Southern Utah got a bad break on its ensuing drive as an apparently down Jerome Eason coughed up the ball on the SUU 30. The officials ruled it a fumble and nine plays later Steffes again ran one yard to give NDSU a 27-14 halftime advantage.

There was no scoring in the third period but in the fourth quarter the Bison built their advantage to 37-14 on a 45-yard Cory Varanian field goal and a 29-yard Cinque Chapman TD run. Southern Utah capped the scoring when Marshall found Hew Len in the corner of the end zone on an 18-yard TD pass.

NDSU finished with 362 yards of offense to 334 for the Thunderbirds. Steffes finished with 149 yards on the ground while Marshall was the Thunderbirds' top ground-gainer with 29 yards on four carries. Marshall also completed 6-of-7 passes for 56 yards while Connors was 16-of-31 for 176 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions before leaving the game. Walker completed 12-of-30 passes for 142 yards and a score.

Defensively Southern Utah's Josh Raban had a career-high 14 tackles, including 10 solo stops, while Steve Smith had 12 tackles. Kole Zimmerman led NDSU with eight tackles.

"I was very disappointed with the way we came out and turned it over right off the bat," SUU Coach Wes Meier said after the game. "To start out like that and spot them 13 points to begin the game put us in a huge hole. I was proud of the way the guys fought back though, and actually took the lead, but another turnover cost us late in the half and we never really recovered. Once again I thought our defense played well in spots but we gave up some big plays at bad times and really had a hard time stopping their running game.

"We just need to regroup and come back and get ready for another road game against another tough conference opponent [South Dakota State] next week."