CEDAR CITY, Utah --  The Thunderbird football team fell to 1-8 on the season and 1-5 in Big Sky Conference play on Saturday afternoon, as they lost to the Montana Grizzlies 57-14 inside Eccles Coliseum.

"We've got 14 days left to try and improve, we've got two games left that mean a lot to us and we want to play as hard as we can," SUU head coach Demario Warren said.

The Grizzlies scored three-straight touchdowns to start the contest, quickly jumping out to a 20-0 lead.

As the first quarter came to a close Ty Rutledge threw a pass to Logan Paker on a trick play, which resulted in a 30-yard touchdown to pull SUU back in the contest.

As the second quarter got underway the Grizzlies scored a field goal, and followed that up with a touchdown roughly five minutes later. With just under two minutes to play in the opening half McCoy Hill took a shovel pass from Tyler Skidmore to the house from seven yards out to trail 30-14 at the break.

Skidmore was the fourth quarterback to start for the Thunderbirds this season when he took the opening snap for SUU today.

The Grizzlies scored 27 unanswered points in the second half to pull away, and Montana left Cedar City with a 57-14 victory moving to 5-4 on the season, and 3-3 in the Big Sky.

Skidmore finished the day 22-of-41 passing with one touchdown and two interceptions. He threw for 138 total yards. Judd Cockett was Skidmore's top target, finishing with five catches for 53 yards. Jay Green Jr. rushed 16 times for 49 yards.

Chinedu Ahanonu led the T-Birds in tackles with 10, including one for loss. AJ Stanley finished with eight, and Logan Taylor and Taylor Nelson both had seven. Nelson had two tackles for loss. The T-Birds had five tackles for loss on the day.  

The Thunderbirds will play their annual Senior Day game next weekend, as they host the No. 4/5 Weber State Wildcats.

Keep tabs on the Thunderbirds by following @SUUFB on Twitter and Instagram and by liking the Southern Utah Football page on Facebook.

Single game tickets for the 2018 season can be purchased online at www.tbirdtickets.com or at the America First Event Center Ticket Office.