A bad day for Utah football teams

This archived article was written by: Jeremy Jones

Among universities in the state of Utah last Saturday, three of them played and only one won.
Brigham Young University was upset by the Stanford Cardinal in Provo.
BYU opened up the scoring in the first quarter with a 27-yard strike from freshman quarterback John Beck to Toby Christensen, giving the Cougars a 7-0 lead.
But Stanford came back later in the first and Kenneth Tolon II ran in a touchdown from five yards out to put the Cardinal within one point. The extra-point try failed, so the score stayed 7-6.
Turnovers for both teams slowed down the scoring and at halftime, the score was still 7-6 for BYU.
In the third quarter, Stanford began to manufacture a drive, but only reached BYU’s 31-yard-line before the drive stalled.
Settling for a field goal, kicker Michael Sgroi gave the Cardinal its first lead of the game 9-7.
Towards the end of the third quarter, BYU pulled the proverbial rabbit out of their hat. Junior quarterback Todd Mortenson lateraled the ball to sophomore Lance Pendleton who then threw the ball 36 yards to an open Daniel Coats in the end zone. Matt Payne added the extra point to put BYU up 14-9.
Stanford again put together a potential scoring drive driven by Tolon II, but BYU’s defense stiffened and held the Cardinal to a 23-yard field goal, bringing Stanford back to within two at 14-12.
The Cougar’s offense was not able to produce anything offensively in the fourth quarter, leaving the door wide open for the Stanford Cardinal; and they walked right through it.
With 3:50 left in the game, Stanford faked a run to Tolon II. Quarterback Trent Edwards kept the ball and scampered 14 yards into the end zone, giving Stanford an 18-14 lead.
Stanford went for a two-point conversion and failed, but it didn’t matter. BYU wasn’t able to score on their last possession and fell short in the end by a final score of 18-14.
The loss pushed BYU back to 2-2 on the season. For their next game, the Cougars will host Air Force on Saturday.
Southern Utah University met a similar fate against Eastern Washington University last Saturday.
Eastern Washington set the tempo of the game, scoring early and often. Eastern Washington scored on two touchdown passes from quarterback Erik Meyer and on a 68-yard interception return by Jessy Hanson to take a 21-0 lead in the first quarter.
Southern Utah finally got on the board in the second quarter on a two-yard touchdown pass to Charles Henderson from QB Casey Rehrer to pull within 14 at 21-7.
But Eastern Washington exploded for three more touchdowns before the half, including a 17-yard touchdown pass with only :38 left before halftime.
At halftime, Eastern Washington was running away with the game, up 42-7.
The second half didn’t feature much offense as the game was pretty much a lost cause at that point.
Eastern Washington’s QB Meyer threw for his fourth touchdown of the game in the third quarter to Erik Kimble, finishing the scoring for Eastern Washington for the game.
Southern Utah added two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, but it really didn’t matter. The final score: Eastern Washington 49, Southern Utah 21.
Weber State was the one bright spot for Utah universities on Saturday. The Wildcats destroyed the Montana Tech Orediggers 49-14.
Weber State’s Nick Chournos ran for 111 yards and three touchdowns in the first half alone to lead Weber to an awesome 42-0 halftime lead.
Montana Tech finally did score in the third quarter and blocked a punt to score another touchdown late in the fourth, but it was way too little as Weber State rolled to the win.
The win moved Weber State to 3-1 overall and in a three-way tie for first place in the Big Sky Conference with Eastern Washington and Idaho State.
Next up for the Wildcats is division rival Eastern Washington on Saturday.
The University of Utah and Utah State both had bye weeks this past week.
The Runnin’ Utes, who are 2-1 overall on the season thus far, will travel to Colorado State to take on the Rams Saturday. It will be both teams’ first conference game.
The Aggies will also open up conference play, but against Louisiana Monroe in Logan, on Saturday.
Utah State hasn’t cracked a win yet this season at 0-3, but Louisiana Monroe is 0-4, so somebody has to win.