College football: Southern Utah defeats Ida..

College football • T-birds' Sharp makes enough plays to beat Bengals.

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Cedar City • Quarterback Mike Sharp ran 34 yards for the only Southern Utah touchdown of the game in a close 19-9 victory over Idaho State on Saturday.

Sharp got his hands on the ball for 31 carries, running for a game-high 157 yards and accounting for over half of the Thunderbirds' 240 yards rushing.

"Offensively, Mike Sharp did a really nice job of keeping possession of the football," SUU coach Ed Lamb said. "He did it with his feet and he threw for 180 yards too, so it was kind good dual threat for us today from the quarterback position.

"I thought we were just a couple of plays here and there from breaking the game open, and that's what we've got to do going forward is to find a way to get over the top a few times and turn some of those drives into touchdown drives."

Idaho State, meanwhile, was held to just 13 yards rushing and 254 yards total for the game.

"I was really pleased with the way the defense played," Lamb said. "Idaho State's really got a potent offense, and to hold them to 250 total yards and almost zero yards rushing was a great job by the defensive guys."

Colton Cook scored the other 13 points for Southern Utah (6-3, 3-2 Big Sky), hitting four field goals and the extra point after Sharp's touchdown. His longest was a 38-yard field goal after Southern Utah's first drive in the fourth quarter.

Justin Arias threw a game-high 241 yards in a bright spot for the Bengals (3-5, 1-4). A short 4-yard pass to Cameron Richmond left the score 13-6 at the half. Idaho State scored once more with a 34-yard field goal by Brendon Garcia in the fourth quarter. —

Southern Utah 19, Idaho State 9

Idaho State 0 6 0 3 — 9

Southern Utah 3 10 0 6 — 19

First Quarter

SUt • FG Cook 38, 6:16.

Second Quarter

SUt • Sharp 1 run (Cook kick), 12:15.

SUt • FG Cook 30, 6:37.

IdSt • Richmond 4 pass from Arias (kick failed), 4:27.

Fourth Quarter

SUt • FG Cook 38, 10:53.

IdSt • FG Garcia 34, 5:27.

SUt • FG Cook 22, :27.

Attendance • 3,342.

IdSt SUt

First downs 13 23

Rushes-yards 12-13 51-240

Passing 241 178

Comp-Att-Int 22-44-2 14-27-1

Return Yards 12 5

Punts-Avg. 5-36.0 4-47.0

Fumbles-Lost 0-0 2-0

Penalties-yards 4-51 7-75

Time of Possession 17:00 43:00

Individual Statistics

Rushing • Idaho St., Finney 7-25, Prier 2-8, Arias 3-(minus 20). S. Utah, Sharp 31-157, Martin 7-37, Robinson 1-19, Te'o 6-16, Allie 1-7, T.Afatasi 4-5, Morgan 1-(minus 1).

Passing • Idaho St., Arias 22-44-2-241. S. Utah, Sharp 14-27-1-178.

Receiving • Idaho St., Austin 6-115, Richmond 4-42, Hansen 3-27, Finney 3-17, Wright 2-16, Cook 2-2, Mangum 1-13, Malcom 1-9. S. Utah, E.Pedersen 3-66, Moala 3-48, Martin 3-23, McNabb 2-14, Allie 1-11, Robinson 1-11, Morgan 1-5.

College football: Southern Utah defeats Idaho State, 19-9