Southern Utah football: Team wraps up season with a win

SAN DIEGO — Colin Pretlow intercepted a pass with 25 seconds to play to end San Diego's upset hopes and give Southern Utah a 37-32 win Saturday night in the season-finale for both teams.

The Thunderbirds led 37-26 after a Ryan Griffith field goal with 6:43 to play, but San Diego answered quickly. One play after a Dion Turner interception at the SUU 10-yard line was negated by a pass interference call against another Thunderbird player, USD quarterback Bo Stampro found Kyle Warren in the back of the end zone to pull the Toreros within 37-32 with 5:01 to play.

SUU ran 4:29 off the clock but was forced to punt after quarterback Cade Cooper was sacked at the SUU 29-yard line with just over a minute to play. San Diego was without a timeout, so Southern Utah was able to run the clock down to 40 seconds before calling a timeout and setting up Trevor Ward's first punt of the night, and it was a beauty. Ward kicked it 56 yards and Erick Fiege was forced to call for a fair catch at the USD 15-yard line.

On the Torero's first play, however, Pretlow stepped in front of a pass intended for John McGough at the SUU 43, allowing the Thunderbirds to run out the clock.

"The interception at the end of the game was huge," SUU coach Ed Lamb said. "Every time I've been on this field with the Toreros, they've won, so when they got the ball back with 30 seconds to go, I was nervous.

"Our defense has struggled all year, but we've also made some plays when we needed plays and Colin made a play when we needed it."

Cooper completed 22-of-31 passes for 273 yards and three touchdowns and became Southern Utah's single-season passing yards and pass attempts leader, giving him every SUU single-season passing record. Kicker Ryan Griffith broke the school's record for field goals and extra points in a season.

Cooper finished the season with 2,988 yards and 31 touchdown passes, while Griffith finished with 15 field goals and 43 extra points.

Tysson Poots caught 10 passes for 149 yards and two TDs, while Fesi Sitake had seven receptions for 83 yards and a pair of scores. Poots' two TDs gave him 15 for the year, breaking his own school record of 14 he set last year.

SUU finished with 507 total yards, its second-highest total of the season, while USD had 353.

The Thunderbirds finished the season 5-6, their best record since the 2004 team went 6-5, while the Toreros finished at 4-7.