CEDAR CITY, Utah – The Southern Utah football team will travel to California this weekend to take on Cal Poly on Saturday March 13 at 1:00 p.m.
Last Time Out
The Thunderbirds hosted Idaho State for their home opener last Saturday, falling to the Bengals on a last-second field goal 26-24.
Southern Utah led 24-23 with 3:38 left to play, but the Bengals drove down the field and kicked a game-winning field goal with just five seconds left.
Justin Miller threw for 232 yards and two touchdowns on the day. Dayne Christiansen was the leading rusher for the T-Birds rushing for 80 yards on three attempts including a 69-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. Landen Measom was the leading receiver for the Thunderbirds with four catches for 75 yards, including a 45-yard touchdown also in the third quarter.
La’akea Kaho’ohanohano-Davis had 12 total tackles on the day with eight of them being solo. He had three tackles for loss including a solo sack and a forced fumble. Jayden Clark finished with nine tackles and Francis Bemiy had eight with a six-yard sack.
Spark On the Ground
Christiansen has been a real spark in the backfield in his first two games as a Thunderbird. In two games he has rushed for a total of 124 yards in just 10 attempts. He has a 69-yard touchdown and a 60-yard kick return.
The freshman is currently ranked sixth in the Big Sky in rushing, averaging 62.0 yards per game. His 69-yard touchdown is the longest run in the conference so far this season.
Big Sky At a Glance
Two weeks into the season, UC Davis and Weber State both sit at the top of the conference standings with a 1-0 record. UC Davis beat Idaho last weekend 27-17 in their season opener and the Wildcats had the weekend off. The two teams will face off this weekend in Ogden.
Eastern Washington, Idaho, Idaho State, and Northern Arizona all sit at 1-1 and Southern Utah is the only team at 0-2.
Weber State is ranked No. 2 in the country while Eastern Washington is ranked No. 16 and UC Davis is ranked No. 23.
Scouting Report: Cal Poly Mustangs (0-0)
The Mustangs were forced to postpone their first two scheduled games of the season, making this weekend’s upcoming game their 2021 spring season opener and the first game they have played since November of 2019.
They have a new head coach in Beau Baldwin, who comes to Cal Poly after three seasons as the offensive coordinator at the University of California. Prior to that, Baldwin was the head coach at Eastern Washington for nine seasons, compiling an 85-32 overall mark with five Big Sky titles and six NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision playoff berths, including the 2010 national championship.
Quarterback Jalen Hamler returns for his sophomore season after completing 62 of 108 passes for 1,167 yards and 12 touchdowns in 2019. He also rushed for 522 yards and nine more scores. Cal Poly will also return two defensive 2019 Big Sky All-Conference performers in redshirt junior defensive lineman Myles Cecil and redshirt senior linebacker Matt Shotwell.
Game Day Information
Saturday’s game is set to kick off at 1:05 p.m. at Alex G. Spanos Stadium in San Luis Obispo, California.
The game will be streamed live on PlutoTV channel 1062 and WatchBigSky.com. It will also be broadcast locally on KSBY-TV.
All of Southern Utah’s football games can be heard over the airwaves on KSUB 107.7 FM and 590 AM in Cedar City, and KDXU News Radio 890 AM and 94.9 FM in St. George. Chris Holmes has recently been announced as the new radio voice for the Thunderbirds, taking on play-by-play duties moving forward.
Live stats can be found on tbirdstats.com.
Story and photo courtesy of SUU Athletics Strategic Communication
