University of Northern Colorado Athletics
Saturday, September 19
Cedar City, UT
6:00 p.m.
University of Northern Colorado
2-1 , 0-1
3
at
30
Southern Utah University
1-2 , 1-0
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
F
Northern Colorado
3
0
0
0
3
Southern Utah
17
6
7
0
30
Team Stats
UNCO
SUU
Total Yards
436
397
Pass Yards
312
255
Rushing Yards
124
142
Penalty Yards
17
53
1st Downs
18
20
3rd Downs
8
6
4th Downs
0
1
TOP
30:36
29:24
1st Quarter
UNCO 0, SUU 3
SUU - Keita Calhoun 25 yd field goal 12 plays, 44 yards, TOP 3:15
UNCO 3, SUU 3
UNCO - Marques Combs 22 yd field goal 11 plays, 65 yards, TOP 4:02
UNCO 3, SUU 10
SUU - Ammon Olsen 19 yd run (Keita Calhoun kick), 1 plays, 19 yards, TOP 0:07
UNCO 3, SUU 17
SUU - Ammon Olsen 1 yd run (Keita Calhoun kick), 8 plays, 55 yards, TOP 3:01
2nd Quarter
UNCO 3, SUU 20
SUU - Keita Calhoun 20 yd field goal 11 plays, 50 yards, TOP 3:38
UNCO 3, SUU 23
SUU - Keita Calhoun 36 yd field goal 8 plays, 57 yards, TOP 0:59
3rd Quarter
UNCO 3, SUU 30
SUU - Mike Needham 27 yd interception (Keita Calhoun kick)
Game Leaders
Passing Leaders
CMP
19
TD
0
YDS
249
INT
3
CMP
4
TD
0
YDS
63
INT
2
Players Mentioned
DB
/ Football
RB
/ Football
RB
/ Football
RB
/ FootballQB
/ Football
WR
/ FootballQB
/ Football
DB
/ Football
DB
/ Football
LB
/ Football
WR
/ Football
Turnovers Cost @UNCBEARSFB Big Sky Opener at Southern Utah
9/19/2015 8:51:00 PM | Football
CEDAR CITY, Utah – Northern Colorado football (2-1, 0-1 Big Sky) dropped its first game of the season on the road against Southern Utah (1-2, 1-0 Big Sky), 30-3.
UNC's offense had a tough time moving the ball with both redshirt freshman running back Trae Riek and redshirt sophomore back Anthony Davis out with an injury. The Bears totaled six turnovers with the ball, including five interceptions and two fumbles, costing them 17 points throughout the game.
"It's disappointing to start the conference season off like this," said head coach Earnest Collins Jr. "With Trae and A.D. [Anthony Davis] out, we knew coming in all three facets of our game had to step up and play big. I thought our defense did a good job of getting us the ball back when we needed it, but we just couldn't produce offensively."
Both QBs Jonathan Newsom and Jacob Knipp saw action in the loss. Newsom got off to a difficult start throwing two interceptions during his time under center, Knipp had one more than him, throwing three overall.
Knipp's final stat line read,19-of-33 with 257 yards passing with three INTs.
Junior back Darius Graham led the run game with 53 yards off 18 carries. Redshirt sophomore Brandon Cartagena also took his share of the workload in the backfield, getting 11 touches for 43 yards.
Junior wide out Stephen Miller topped the pass game for the Bears with his first 100-yard receiving game of the season, recording 111 yards off just six catches.
Northern Colorado got off on the wrong foot to begin the game with Newsom getting picked off by the Thunderbirds Kyle Hannemann on the Bears' 47 yard line.
The INT cost the Bears three points as Southern Utah put through a 25-yard kick to take the early lead, 3-0.
The offense came back out composed, and drove it 60 yards in 11 plays all the way down to the T-Birds 15 yard line, but the drive stalled and the Bears came away with three points of their own, tying the game at 3-3 with 6:53 to go in the first.
That was all of the offense UNC was able to muster in the first half, and the game.
Southern Utah put 20 more points up on the board, including 17 in the first quarter alone off TD runs of 19 yards and 1 yard.
Northern Colorado's defense stepped up in a big way during the second quarter holding the Thunderbirds to just six points (two field goals), and forcing two punts and coming away with an interception by senior DB A.J. Battle, his first of the season.
The second half was more of the same for the Bears; they put together successful drives, but were plagued by turnovers.
"It's hard to win a game when you turn the ball over as much as we did tonight," said Collins. "This was a team that you couldn't make that many mistakes against and expect to win, and we did just that. Southern Utah is very talented defensively and they caused us a lot of problems tonight."
Southern Utah scored just one time in the second half, which came early in the third quarter off a UNC fumble.
Knipp found senior receiver Malcolm Whye open on the sideline, but as soon as he caught the pass he was hit, causing the ball to pop loose and fall into the arms of the Thunderbirds' Mike Needham who took it 27 yards the other way for six, bringing the game to the the final score, 30-3.
Defensively, The Bears racked up 72 tackles as a unit. Junior DB Thomas Singleton led the pack with nine tackles. Sophomore linebacker Bryan Stansbury wasn't far behind, ending his night with eight tackles, including a TFL. Taylor Risner was third on the tackles list with seven, adding two pass break ups.
"We didn't respond well to the adversity we faced tonight," Collins added. "I'm proud of the way our defense hung in there all night long and continued to make stops, but we got down on ourselves when our offense wasn't moving the ball and we can't hang our heads, we have to continue to fight through and find ways to win against good teams."
The football team returns to Nottingham Field next Saturday, Sept. 26 to square off against Weber State (1-2, 0-0 Big Sky), who's coming off a victory over Sacramento State.
UNC's offense had a tough time moving the ball with both redshirt freshman running back Trae Riek and redshirt sophomore back Anthony Davis out with an injury. The Bears totaled six turnovers with the ball, including five interceptions and two fumbles, costing them 17 points throughout the game.
"It's disappointing to start the conference season off like this," said head coach Earnest Collins Jr. "With Trae and A.D. [Anthony Davis] out, we knew coming in all three facets of our game had to step up and play big. I thought our defense did a good job of getting us the ball back when we needed it, but we just couldn't produce offensively."
Both QBs Jonathan Newsom and Jacob Knipp saw action in the loss. Newsom got off to a difficult start throwing two interceptions during his time under center, Knipp had one more than him, throwing three overall.
Knipp's final stat line read,19-of-33 with 257 yards passing with three INTs.
Junior back Darius Graham led the run game with 53 yards off 18 carries. Redshirt sophomore Brandon Cartagena also took his share of the workload in the backfield, getting 11 touches for 43 yards.
Junior wide out Stephen Miller topped the pass game for the Bears with his first 100-yard receiving game of the season, recording 111 yards off just six catches.
Northern Colorado got off on the wrong foot to begin the game with Newsom getting picked off by the Thunderbirds Kyle Hannemann on the Bears' 47 yard line.
The INT cost the Bears three points as Southern Utah put through a 25-yard kick to take the early lead, 3-0.
The offense came back out composed, and drove it 60 yards in 11 plays all the way down to the T-Birds 15 yard line, but the drive stalled and the Bears came away with three points of their own, tying the game at 3-3 with 6:53 to go in the first.
That was all of the offense UNC was able to muster in the first half, and the game.
Southern Utah put 20 more points up on the board, including 17 in the first quarter alone off TD runs of 19 yards and 1 yard.
Northern Colorado's defense stepped up in a big way during the second quarter holding the Thunderbirds to just six points (two field goals), and forcing two punts and coming away with an interception by senior DB A.J. Battle, his first of the season.
The second half was more of the same for the Bears; they put together successful drives, but were plagued by turnovers.
"It's hard to win a game when you turn the ball over as much as we did tonight," said Collins. "This was a team that you couldn't make that many mistakes against and expect to win, and we did just that. Southern Utah is very talented defensively and they caused us a lot of problems tonight."
Southern Utah scored just one time in the second half, which came early in the third quarter off a UNC fumble.
Knipp found senior receiver Malcolm Whye open on the sideline, but as soon as he caught the pass he was hit, causing the ball to pop loose and fall into the arms of the Thunderbirds' Mike Needham who took it 27 yards the other way for six, bringing the game to the the final score, 30-3.
Defensively, The Bears racked up 72 tackles as a unit. Junior DB Thomas Singleton led the pack with nine tackles. Sophomore linebacker Bryan Stansbury wasn't far behind, ending his night with eight tackles, including a TFL. Taylor Risner was third on the tackles list with seven, adding two pass break ups.
"We didn't respond well to the adversity we faced tonight," Collins added. "I'm proud of the way our defense hung in there all night long and continued to make stops, but we got down on ourselves when our offense wasn't moving the ball and we can't hang our heads, we have to continue to fight through and find ways to win against good teams."
The football team returns to Nottingham Field next Saturday, Sept. 26 to square off against Weber State (1-2, 0-0 Big Sky), who's coming off a victory over Sacramento State.
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