College football: Southern Utah tops Northe..

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Greeley, Colo. • Aaron Cantu threw for 269 yards and two touchdowns to lead Southern Utah past Northern Colorado 27-21 in both teams' Big Sky opener Saturday.

Southern Utah (4-1, 1-0 Big Sky) trailed 7-3 late in the first half but scored two touchdowns within a minute to take a 17-7 lead just before halftime.

The first was a one-yard touchdown run by Levi Te'o with 1:02 left in the half. Then after a three-and-out by Northern Colorado (1-4, 0-1), Cantu threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Griff McNabb with 15 seconds remaining to put the Thunderbirds up by 10. Cantu added a 17-yarder to Easton Pedersen in the third.

Tim Tancik threw two touchdown passes for Northern Colorado and ran for a score but had two interceptions. His five-yard touchdown pass with 58 seconds left put the Bears within a touchdown, but Southern Utah recovered an onside kick to seal the victory.

With the win, SUU earned the program's second 4-1 start in its Division I era. The 1997 team also started 4-1.

After struggling on defense the two previous weeks, allowing more than 400 yards to both Washington State and Sacramento State, the T-birds were much stronger Saturday, limiting the Bears to only 273 total yards, including just four on the ground — the fewest allowed to a Division I team in SUU history. —

S. Utah 27, N. Colorado 21

S. Utah 3 14 7 3 — 27

N. Colorado 0 7 7 7 — 21

First Quarter

SUt • FG Cook 48, 2:47.

Second Quarter

NoCo • Jac.Davis 19 pass from Tancik (Falloon kick), 10:37.

SUt • Te'o 1 run (Cook kick), 1:02.

SUt • McNabb 12 pass from Cantu (Cook kick), :15.

Third Quarter

NoCo • Tancik 1 run (Falloon kick), 11:43.

SUt • E.Pedersen 17 pass from Cantu (Cook kick), 6:26.

Fourth Quarter

SUt • FG Cook 36, 6:08.

NoCo • Stimphil 5 pass from Tancik (Falloon kick), :58.

Attendance • 4,361.

SUt NoCo

First downs 18 16

Rushes-yards 34-53 21-4

Passing 269 269

Comp-Att-Int 28-38-1 26-43-2

Return Yards (-7) 25

Punts-Avg. 7-42.0 6-43.0

Fumbles-Lost 2-1 1-1

Penalties-yards 3-25 5-42

Time of Possession 33:28 25:34

Individual Statistics

Rushing • S. Utah, Brown 7-20, Te'o 9-18, Martin 7-17, Moala 1-6, Taele 3-6, Sanft 1-0, Sharp 1-0, Team 2-(minus 4), Cantu 3-(minus 10). N. Colorado, Dennis 11-34, Graham 4-1, Team 1-(minus 1), Tancik 5-(minus 30).

Passing • S. Utah, Cantu 28-38-1-269. N. Colorado, Tancik 26-43-2-269.

Receiving • S. Utah, Moala 7-120, McNabb 6-40, E.Pedersen 4-33, Taele 4-33, Morgan 4-29, Norris 2-15, Allphin 1-(minus 1). N. Colorado, Dennis 7-94, Stimphil 6-50, Jac.Davis 5-62, Vander Velde 2-22, Peoples 2-17, Jefferson 2-7, Monson 1-11, Graham 1-6.

College football: Southern Utah tops Northern Colorado 27-21