Cal Poly holds off Southern Utah for first Big Sky win of the season

Coming into Saturday’s game with Southern Utah, Cal Poly probably expected a pretty close game. The second half didn’t disappoint, as Cal Poly racked-up 593 yards of total offense en route to a close 42-39 Big Sky Conference victory at Alex G. Spanos Stadium.

Joe Prothroe rushes up the middle for Cal Poly early in Saturday night’s game. By Owen Main

For a quarter, it didn’t look like the game would be close. Cal Poly jumped out to a fast 21-0 lead in the first quarter, taking advantage of a SUU fumble and using a balanced offensive attack. But the Thunderbirds figured things out in the second quarter and outscored the Mustangs 17-0 to cut the lead to 21-17 going into halftime.

The first four possessions of the second half resulted in lead-changing touchdowns before Southern Utah kicker Trevor McGirr missed a 38 yard field-goal attempt with 13:43 remaining in the fourth quarter. The field goal would have tied the game.

Instead, the Mustangs scored two minutes and six seconds later to make it a two possession game. After four conscutive scoreless possessions (two for each team), Cal Poly shook-off a late Thunderbird touchdown and iced the game with a 3:00-plus drive. Chris Brown took a knee from the SUU nine yard-line to end the game.

Turnovers once again played a huge part on Saturday. Southern Utah fumbled on their opening possession and Jordan Williams picked-off SUU quarterback, Ammon Olsen in the fourth quarter. Cal Poly did not turn the ball over.

Judge is back

Chris Judge, who has been plagued by all kinds of injuries over the past year and a half, made his presence felt on Saturday. Despite the defense giving up a lot of points and yards, it seems as though Cal Poly is getting a little more aggressive, especially as they attack a passing quarterback.

SUU’s Olsen was sacked three times, which doesn’t seem like a lot. But Cal Poly’s defense has been more about coverage over the past few years and the big plays by pass rushers were a welcome sight for fans who yearn for the days of Chris Gocong and Kyle Shotwell and double-digit sack numbers in games.

Up the middle

Cal Poly seems to have committed to running the ball up the gut with the fullback, and it seems to be working. Brandon Howe led the team with 28 rushes for 133 yards and a touchdown. Brent Michaels added a pair of rushes for 12 yards and a score and Joe Prothroe rushed four times for 19 yards. In all, fullbacks rushed the ball 34 times and amassed 164 yards.

I’ll continue to beat the “give it to the fullback” drum here until said drum develops a hole. One thing that was nice about the rushing attack of Cal Poly in the first half was that Chris Brown did not rush the ball in the first quarter.

When in doubt, punt

Elias Stokes, a sophomore slotback for Cal Poly from Paso Robles, seems to have taken the punting duties away from Chris Nicholls. Nicholls replaced Stephen Pyle as the punter and, while Kyle Schottenfeld (field goals) and James Foug (kickoffs) have handled the placekicking duties, Stokes seems to be the punter for now. On Saturday, he averaged 37.2 yards and five attempts.

 Crazy numbers

The numbers from this game were pretty insane.

Brown went 5-5 passing in the first quarter with two touchdowns and zero rushing attempts. Brown only had four rushing attempts and was 9-11 for 95 yards passing for the entire first half.

A tight end for Cal Poly (Austin Albison) caught a touchdown pass. If you’ve been around Cal Poly since their move to Division I, you’ll know that that this is kind of a big deal.

Cal Poly had two players (Howe and Brown) with 100-plus yards rushing (133 and 112 respectively), and Kori Garcia netted 97 yards on 16 carries. Overall, Cal Poly gained 457 yards rushing.

Six different Mustangs caught passes on the night.

For the game, teams scored on half the total possessions and 12/22 possessions that didn’t end with the clock running out in the second or fourth quarter.

If Cal Poly had tried for a touchdown on their final possession, they would not only have been playing dumb football and have been bad sports, but they could have eclipsed the 600 total yard mark. Instead, they ended with the ball on the 11 yard line after a kneel-down and 593 total yards.

Cal Poly racked-up 97 plays on offense. If not for a triple-overtime game in the past, that would have been at least threatening the record.

Southern Utah gained 504 total yards of offense themselves.

Cal Poly controlled the ball and time of possession was wildly in the Mustangs’ favor: 38:28 to 21:42 for SUU. It didn’t stop the Thunderbirds from almost coming out of Spanos with a victory.

Upcoming

Cal Poly (2-3, 1-1) now hits the road for two weeks. First, they’ll go to Weber State for a game next Saturday before heading to the state capitol to take on the Sacramento State Hornets in two weeks.

Photos by Owen Main (To view on an iPhone or iPad or to browse/buy photos, click here)