Nov. 21, 2009
(San Diego, CA) - The USD Toreros bid to beat a scholarship program in its final game for the second consecutive year fell short as the visiting Southern Utah Thunderbirds (5-6) held on for a 37-32 win before 2,635 fans at Torero Stadium. With the loss the Toreros finish with a record of 4-7. The Toreros pulled to within 37-32 on Bo Stompro's 5th TD, a 17-yarder to Kyle Warren with 6:43 to go in the game, but USD's two-point conversion failed. The Torero defense forced the Thunderbirds to punt away and USD got the ball back with just 32 ticks. Stompro's first pass was picked off by Colin Pretlow and SUU ran out the clock from there.
Southern Utah jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter as Ryan Griffith connected on a 34-yard field goal, and QB Cade Coooper connected with Tysson Poots for a 42-yard score. USD pulled to within 10-6 when Stompro hit John McGough in the back of the endzone with 2:07 left in the quarter. Early in the 2nd quarter USD took its only lead of the game, 13-10, when Stompro's 2-yard pass to FB Quintin Brown culminated an 8-play, 67-yard drive at the 8:38 mark. From there SUU scored on a 25-yard pass from Ammon Olsen to Fesi Sitake, and Griffith converted his 2nd field goal from 27 yards with one tick left for a 20-13 halftime advantage.
In the second half USD answered each of the Thunderbird scores but never were able to get back on top. Sitake caught his second TD, an 8-yarder from Cade Cooper with 13:15 left in the 3rd quarter. The Toreros marched 51 yards on 7 plays over the next 3:41 with Stompro connecting with TE Patrick Doyle to pull to within 27-20. The Thunderbirds closed out the quarter with Cooper hitting Tysson Poots for 16 yards, culminating a 6-play, 54-yard drive.
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USD entered the final quarter down 34-20, but the Toreros put together an impressive 13-play, 81-yard drive over 6 minutes that finished off with an 8-yard TD reception by Godfrey Smith from Stompro. USD's Mike Levine missed his second of four PAT attempts as the score was 34-26 with 10:59 to go. Griffith's third field goal, a 41-yarder with 6:43 left, made it 37-26 and Warren's 17-yard TD reception was the final points of a very hard fought contest.
Freshman QB Bo Stompro had his best outing in his four starts by completing 24-of-38 passes for 247 yards and 5 touchdowns. He connected seven times each with receivers Eric Fiege (83 yards) and John McGough (63 yards). JT Rogan closed out his collegiate career with numerous school records, finished with 61 yards rushing on 9 carries. The Toreros totaled 352 yards of offense, but the Thunderbirds were better as they totaled 507 yards (310 passing). Cooper completed 22-of-31 for 273 yards and 3 TDs. Tysson Poots caught 10 balls for 149 yards and 2 scores.
Defensively for the Toreros USD received big games from LB Loka Kanongataa (12 tackles), senior SS Gabriel Derricks (11 tackles) and sophomore DB Al-Rilwan Adeyemi (6 stops, 2 breakups).
