Southern Utah
Cal Poly Falls to No. 24 Southern Utah, 54-37
10/31/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
CEDAR CITY, Utah -- In a game featuring four Cal Poly 100-yard rushers, No. 24 Southern Utah returned three Mustang fumbles for touchdowns in a wild 54-37 Big Sky Conference football victory Saturday afternoon inside Eccles Coliseum.
Mike Needham returned two of the miscues 9 and 68 yards for scores and All-American defensive end James Cowser scooped up another Mustang fumble and returned it 55 yards for a score.
Fullback Jared Mohamed (pictured above) (107 yards), slot back Kyle Lewis (121 yards), quarterback Chris Brown (110 yards) and slot back DJ Peluso (108 yards) all surpassed the 100-yard mark – the first time a quartet of Mustangs have done that in a single game – but Cal Poly suffered its sixth loss in seven games, falling to 2-6 overall and 1-4 in Big Sky games.
Southern Utah, coming off a 3-9 season, has won six straight, improving to 6-2 overall and 5-0 in Big Sky games, tied for first place with Eastern Washington.
In its first four Big Sky games this season, Southern Utah had given up just nine points – three field goals – but Cal Poly exploded for five touchdowns and a field goal, amassing 508 yards on the ground against a Thunderbird defense that had given up just 128 yards a contest.
Five lost fumbles proved to be the Mustangs' undoing, negating the powerful Triple Option offense. Cal Poly also lost four fumbles in last week's loss to Portland State after losing just two fumbles in its first six games this season.
Trailing by 16 points at halftime, Cal Poly pulled to within two points at 33-31 on a 41-yard touchdown run by Lewis and a 15-yarder by Brown.
The Mustangs were driving for the go-ahead score late in the third period when Mohamed's fumble was caught in mid-air by Needham, resulting in a 68-yard recovery and run. Cowser's 55-yard recovery and run nine second into the fourth quarter put the game out of reach for Cal Poly.
Lewis scored four touchdowns on runs of 7, 6, 41 and 11 yards, becoming the first Mustang in eight years to accomplish the feat. Quarterback Jonathan Dally rushed for four scores against Northern Colorado in 2007.
Stephen Pyle gave Cal Poly an early 3-0 lead with a 28-yard field goal and Brown scampered 15 yards for the remaining Mustang touchdown midway through the third period.
Brown completed six of 10 passes for 47 yards and his favorite target was senior Willie Tucker with three catches for 29 yards.
Southern Utah quarterback Ammon Olsen connected on 18 of 31 passes for 205 yards and two scores. Malik Brown added two touchdowns on runs of 10 and 2 yards, finishing with 85 yards on 17 carries.
Mustang linebacker Burton De Koning recorded 16 tackles and one pass breakup while fellow linebacker R.J. Mazolewski added 10 tackles.
The 54 points Cal Poly gave up Saturday are the most since UC Davis beat the Mustangs 63-28 in 2000.
Cal Poly finished with 508 yards on the ground, adding to its nation-leading average of 391.7 yards a contest, and recorded 555 total yards. Southern Utah compiled 400 total yards – 195 on the ground and 205 through the air. The Mustangs possessed the ball for 36 minutes, 29 seconds, 13 minutes more than the Thunderbirds.
Cal Poly will host Sacramento State next Saturday night at 6:05 p.m. in Alex G. Spanos Stadium. The Hornets (2-6, 1-4 Big Sky) had a bye Saturday.
