Southern Utah rolls to victory over North Dakota

CEDAR CITY — Cade Cooper threw for 295 yards and four touchdowns and Southern Utah got its first interception return for a touchdown since 2004 as the Thunderbirds rolled to a 35-10 win against North Dakota on Saturday.

Cooper, who completed 31-of-45 passes, hooked up with Tysson Poots twice on TD passes of 7 and 9 yards. The Thunderbirds' quarterback also found Austin Minefee and Fesi Sitake for scores of 6 and 10 yards. Sitake caught seven passes for 102 yards, while Minefee logged 109 total yards, with 61 yards on eight catches, and 44 yards on 13 carries. Poots had seven catches for another 61 yards.

Erron Vonner iced the victory with a 12-yard interception return for a score to give Southern Utah a 35-3 advantage in the fourth quarter.

North Dakota got its lone touchdown on an 8-yard run by Brent Goska with 1:46 to play.

Southern Utah's homecoming win gave the teams identical records of 3-4 overall and 1-1 in the Great West Conference.

Southern Utah took the opening kickoff and marched 68 yards on seven plays to take an early 7-0 lead. But on its next possession, Cooper was intercepted by Tyson Heiser on the 21-yard line and the SUU offense sputtered through much of the rest of the half.

The Thunderbirds' defense, however, stifled North Dakota, limiting the Sioux to just a 26-yard Brandon Hellevang field goal.

Late in the first half, North Dakota's Ryan Dressler muffed a punt and SUU's Akeem Anifowoshe recovered at the North Dakota 27 with 56 seconds to play in the half.

The Thunderbirds were able to convert the turnover into Minefee's touchdown reception and SUU took a 21-3 edge into halftime.

The Thunderbirds tacked on the second Cooper-to-Poots TD with 8:45 to go in the third quarter. Then midway through the fourth quarter, Vonner's interception sealed the win.

"With regard to the defense, I was very pleased, especially the secondary," SUU coach Ed Lamb said. "In the time I've been at Southern Utah, I don't think I've seen as many three-and-outs as we saw today.

"We were able to win the take-away battle today, and that was significant. Our players were aggressive going to the ball.

"I'm very pleased with the offense; they threw everything they had at us today," Lamb added. "Cade showed tremendous poise."