Northern Arizona Holds Off Utah Tech to Stay 3-0
Northern Arizona never trailed. That sounds comfortable until you notice Utah Tech got within five points with 7:06 left in the fourth quarter, after a pick-six and a two-point conversion had turned a 14-0 hole into a ballgame. The Lumberjacks answered the way you want to answer: Kenveon Stone ripped off a 33-yard touchdown run with 3:39 to go, and that made it 35-23.
The first half was all Northern Arizona, 14-0 on a 15-yard pass to Jeter Purdy and an 8-yard Stone run. Then Brady Sorenson returned an interception 35 yards for a touchdown early in the third and Utah Tech was in it. Northern Arizona hit right back 48 seconds later when Ty Pennington found Darius Haskin for 63 yards, 21-7. Ace Chatman ran in a 15-yarder, Dax Iverson kicked a 45-yard field goal with six seconds left in the quarter, and it was 21-17 going to the fourth.
Pennington added a 7-yard touchdown run to make it 28-17. Utah Tech got the margin back to five when Chatman caught a 22-yard score from Bronson Barben and ran in the two-point conversion. Then came Stone.
The yardage says this should have been less tense: 499 total yards to 266 (311 through the air, 188 on the ground), and two sacks to none. Northern Arizona also gave it away twice, one interception and one lost fumble, and the interception was the one that went back for six. Flip that single play and this is a 14-point game at the half and a very different afternoon.
Northern Arizona is 3-0. Utah Tech is 0-3 and has now lost a game it hung around in. For fantasy purposes, Pennington and Stone were the week, and Chatman gave the losing side its own big number.