Final Stats

CEDAR CITY, Utah -- The UC Davis defense turned in its best performance of the season, holding Southern Utah to 260 total yards, but the offense wasn't able to capitalize in the Thunderbirds' 24-3 Big Sky football win on Saturday night at Eccles Coliseum.

UC Davis, which played without starting quarterback Ben Scott, who was injured, as well as five other starters, fell to 1-5 on the season and 0-3 in the Big Sky. Southern Utah improved to 3-2 and 2-1.

Quarterback Brock Dale completed 23 of 45 passes for 219 yards in his first career start as an Aggie while Joshua Kelley rushed for 62 yards on 12 carries, including a 34-yarder.

Safety Ryan Parenteau, defensive end Anthony Baumgart, safety Delvin Alexander and linebackers Nas Anesi and Ryan Bua each had sacks for the Aggie defense.

Safety Keleen Culberson had a team-high nine tackles, including eight solo, and broke up a pass. UC Davis forced Southern Utah to punt nine times, six of them coming after three-and-outs.

"It was a tough loss," said head coach Ron Gould. "Offensively, we really didn't play very well (but) it was the best defensive game that we've had.

"Going in, we thought that they'd be really tough on the run game and we did not play very well on the offensive side of the ball," he said. "We missed a lot of opportunities."

The Thunderbirds gained just 77 yards on the ground and 183 through the air but were able to take advantage of a big play, a special teams miscue and a long drive to score three touchdowns in the second quarter after neither team started well offensively in the first.

Matt Blair had a 26-yard field in the second quarter as Southern Utah took a 21-3 lead into the break. Keita Calhoun had a 28-yard field goal in the third quarter for the game's only scoring after halftime.

Neither team was able to get untracked offensively in the first quarter with UC Davis and Southern Utah combining for eight punts in the opening 15 minutes. With the defenses taking center stage, both teams went 3-and-out three times on their first four drives and both went only six plays on the others.

The Aggies had just 23 total yards in the opening quarter while the Thunderbirds only had three. Defensive end Anthony Baumgart, linebacker Nas Anesi and safety Ryan Parenteau helped lead the way for UC Davis with early sacks.

Southern Utah, though, finally broke through with the game's biggest offensive play to that point when quarterback Patrick Tyler hit Brady Measom on the near sideline early in the second quarter and Measom broke free before going down the UC Davis 10. Malik Brown took it in from 11 yards two plays later to put the Thunderbirds up, 7-0.

UC Davis was held on its next drive and Southern Utah got the next big break when punter Colby Wadman wasn't able to handle the snap and was tackled at the 4. The Thunderbirds turned that opportunity into seven points when Tyler kept it for a 2-yard TD.

The Aggies' offense was finally able to get on track midway through the second quarter with Joshua Kelley carrying the ball for 12 yards and a first down before later going 34 yards to the SUU 24. Dale hit tight end Gabe Martinez to get to the 11 but the Thunderbirds held there and UC Davis settled for a 26-yard field goal from Blair.

Southern Utah got the ball back deep in its own territory with 1:45 left in the half and used a 16-yard pass to Measom and a 22-yarder to Steven Wroblewski to help set up Raysean Pringl's 40-yard keeper up the middle for a touchdown and a 21-3 halftime lead.

UC Davis had its best scoring chance in the second half late in the game, driving to the Thunderbirds' 16 before Dale was intercepted by Josh Thornton in the corner of the endzone.

Tyler had 183 yards on 20 of 28 passing while Brown rushed for 58 yards on 17 carries. Junior Tufuga posted a game-high 12 tackles.

Besides Scott, the Aggies were without starting tight end Nehemiah Winston, receiver Ramon Vargas, and linebackers Brady Stibi and Russell Reeder. Center Kevin Gavigan missed his third game.

The Aggies will look to find the win column next weekend when they host Northern Colorado in the annual homecoming. Kickoff at Aggie Stadium is 4 p.m.