Portland State Scores 30 in a Half, Tops Utah Tech
Portland State had 30 points on the board before halftime. Utah Tech had 7. The rest of the day was a formality, and the Vikings won 30-14 while the Utah Tech record slid to 0-6.
It started with Tyrese Smith throwing 39 yards to Zui Shelton with 1:20 left in the first quarter. Then it piled up. Niall Raby ran 33 yards for a touchdown with 14:01 left in the second, Joshua Hossmann Lees kicked a 35-yard field goal, and Smith threw 3 yards to Tanner Beaman to make it 23-0 (the extra point failed, which is the only thing that went wrong for them all half). Utah Tech finally got on the board when Bronson Barben caught a 4-yard touchdown pass from Isaac McMullin with 1:48 left in the half. Yes, the quarterback caught the touchdown. Smith answered with a 1-yard run 51 seconds later and it was 30-7 at the break.
Portland State never trailed and never let anyone close it up after that. The third quarter had no scoring at all, and the only points of the second half were a Cavalli Nealy 1-yard run with 3:25 left in the fourth that made it 30-14. Utah Tech had 330 total yards against 362 for Portland State, so the yardage was not the gap. Turnovers were: Utah Tech lost two fumbles, Portland State lost one, and neither team threw an interception.
Portland State moves to 2-2. Utah Tech is 0-6 and still searching for a first win.
Fantasy-wise, Smith led everybody with 29.8 points, but Barben was the better story. He threw 43 passes, completed 22, ran 19 times and caught one touchdown. That is a busy afternoon for a quarterback on a losing team.