SAN
DIEGO, Calif., Nov. 21 - Colin Pretlow intercepted a pass with 25 seconds to
play to end San Deigo's upset hopes and give Southern Utah a 37-32 win Saturday
night in the season finale for both teams.
The
Thunderbirds led 37-36 after a Ryan Griffith field goal with 6:43 to play but
San Diego answered quickly. One play after a Dion Turner interception at the
SUU 10-yard line was negated by a pass interference call against another
Thunderbird, USD quarterback Bo Stampro found Kyle Warren in the back of the
end zone to pull the Toreros within 37-32 with 5:01 to play.
SUU
ran 4: 29 off the clock, but were forced to punt after quarterback Cade Cooper
was sacked at the SUU 29 yard line
with just over a minute to play. San Diego was without a time out, so Southern
Utah was able to run the clock down to 40 seconds before calling a time out and
setting up Trevor Ward's first punt of the night, and it was a beauty. Ward
kicked it 56 yards and Erick Fiege was forced to call for a fair catch at the
USD 15 yard line.
On
the Torero's first play, however, Pretlow stepped in fromt of a pass intended
for John McGough at the SUU 43, allowing the Thunderbirds to run out the clock.
"The
interception at the end of the game was huge," SUU Coach Ed Lamb said. "Every
time I've been on this field with the Toreros they've won, so when they got the
ball back with 30 seconds to go I was nervous. Our defense has struggled all
year but we've also made some plays when we needed plays and Colin made a play
when we needed it.
Cooper
completed 222-of-31 passes for 273 yards and three touchdowns and became
Southern Utah's single-season passing yards and pass attempts leader along the
way, giving him every SUU single season passing record, while kicker Ryan Griffith broke the school's record for field goals and extra points in a
season. Cooper finished the season with 2,988 yards and 31 touchdown passes
while Griffith finished with 15 field goals and 43 extra points.
Tysson Poots caught 10 passes for 149 yards and two TDs, while Fesi Sitake had seven
receptions for 83 yards and a pair of socres. Poots' two TDs gave him 15 for
the year, breaking his own school record of 14 he set last year.
SUU
finished with 507 total yards, its second-highest total of the season, while
USD had 353.
The
Thunderbirds finished the season 5-6, their best record since the 2004 team
went 6-5, while the Toreros finished at 4-7.
-- SUU --
