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CEDAR CITY — Southern Utah hosted its former conference foe UC Davis Saturday night and wrestled to a 24-21 finish in their home opener.
The game was just a 1-point difference from the teams' matchup last year, which the Aggies won 23-21.
Despite taking the No. 15 ranked FCS team down to the wire and putting the Aggies to the test, Southern Utah head coach DeLane Fitzgerald was not pleased with the effort.
"I'm not impressed with us tonight," Fitzgerald said. "We didn't practice well enough this week, and we came out tonight and didn't execute well enough to win the football game."
All in all, the Thunderbirds still put on a show to welcome fans back to Eccles Coliseum.
UC Davis received the opening kickoff and were off to a promising start until a Miles Hastings pass was picked off by Southern Utah's Lacarea Pleasant-Johnson and returned for a 59-yard touchdown. But Hastings was anything but gun shy after giving up the pick six. He completed six of his next eight pass attempts on the next drive to four different receivers.
The Southern Utah defense kept the Aggies in check, though, by forcing the offense to attempt a field goal. Once Hunter Ridley's kick was good, the Thunderbirds still boasted a three-point lead.
While UC Davis stayed in the air, Southern Utah took to the ground. It took until just over a minute remained in the first half, but the legs of Targhee Lambson landed the Thunderbirds' second blow. The Aggies again answered with only a field goal, and the Thunderbirds were ahead by eight at the intermission.
The Aggie defense refused to budge in the third frame, and allowed just three Southern Utah first downs while holding them scoreless. The offense started to figure things out, too.
Hastings and his Aggies finally reached the end zone on a touchdown pass to Winston Williams, and a successful two-point conversion erased the UC Davis deficit.
Tying the game wasn't enough, and after forcing SUU into a three-and-out, the Aggies needed just one play to finally take the lead. Hastings threw to running back Lan Larison for a 60-yard touchdown, putting a seven-point cushion between them and the Thunderbirds.
"If you want to see what the number 15 team in the country looks like, we all got to watch them play in the third quarter," Fitzgerald said. "They came out and did what a really good football team does when they're down at halftime."
Southern Utah managed to perform some damage control, and held the Aggies to just one more field goal for the remainder of the game. The defense had done its job; now all SUU had to do was score, and score fast.
Trailing by 10 at the start of the fourth quarter, Lambson lit up for the Thunderbirds. Immediately, he took off for a 40-yard gain and helped his team to the Aggie six-yard line before kicker Danny King missed a crucial field goal.
Lambson pushed forward in the next drive, insisting on putting the ball into the end zone himself and closing the gap to just three points.
"It was my determination to win the game," Lambson said. "I love my guys up front, I love this team, so if my role is to be the spark then I'll be the spark."
As Southern Utah fans watched nervously, the defense forced a punt and reclaimed possession with a minute and 53 seconds left on the clock.
Quarterback Bronson Barron took the field and threw for 11 straight pass attempts, enough to push into Aggie territory, but signed the Thunderbirds' death certificate when he was intercepted by David Meyer in the final seconds.
Though they gave UC Davis a run for their money, Southern Utah came at the wrong end of the decision and advanced their record to 1-2. Next week, the Thunderbirds are scheduled to take on Idaho State in Pocatello, and Fitzgerald expects nothing less than a tough game.
"We've got to be grown men about this and get a good night's sleep tonight. Get up in the morning and learn from our mistakes tonight, and then put this away and move forward. We play a good football team in Pocatello, Idaho, next weekend in Idaho State, and we play in an arena that's not easy to play in," he said. "We have to be a lot more consistent day in and day out, play in and play out this week in practice, for us to accomplish our goals this fall."
