Aggies secure win over Rams
Utah State avenged its 2011 double-overtime homecoming loss with a 31-19 win over Colorado State on Saturday night.
Senior running back Kerwynn WIlliams started things off for Utah State with a 26-yard scamper into the end zone to make it 7-0 with 9:52 left in the first quarter.
“It’s great to see him have success,” Utah State head coach Gary Andersen said. “It’s great to see him rewarded for being a great kid and a great teammate.”
Aggie kicker Josh Thompson kicked a 20-yard field goal eight minutes later to extend the lead to 10. It was his first field goal of the season.
Senior wide receiver Matt Austin caught a 1-yard, fourth-down pass on a fade route to give USU the 17-point lead with 7:14 to go in the half.
The Rams were held scoreless until 7:10 in the third quarter when sophomore kicker Jared Roberts hit a 28-yard field goal to cut the lead to 17-3. Roberts hit again from 31 yards to make it 17-6 five minutes later.
CSU had 67 yards of offense in the first half.
Aggie linebacker Zach Vigil had seven tackles, three for a loss and two sacks in the game.
“Our defense stepped it up,” Vigil said. “I felt pretty fresh coming into the second half because we hardly played (in the first half). We were off the field.”
Utah State was held scoreless in the second half until Williams broke a 58-yard run with 42 seconds left in the quarter to make it 24-6.
The senior from Las Vegas had 22 carries for 218 yards and two touchdowns.
“We came out in the second half with a fire lit underneath us and just wanted to go out there and play hard,” Williams said. “From start to finish, the offensive line did a good job of opening up a big hole for me to hit.”
USU quarterback Chuckie Keeton threw two interceptions in the game, his second and third of the season.
“We lost the turnover margin,” Andersen said. “We’re living on the edge as a football team. We had an opportunity and we did an okay job tonight, but we still made it harder than it may have had to have been.”
Colorado State linebacker Shaquil Barrett had one of those interceptions and also recovered a fumble for a touchback near the end of the first half.
Colorado State made things interesting at the start of the fourth quarter when sophomore quarterback Garrett Grayson completed passes on back-to-back fourth-down conversions, connecting with senior receiver Dominique Vinson to pull within 12.
Aggie running back Joe Hill scored from 15 yards out to make it 31-12 with fewer than eight minutes left to play.
Grayson hit senior Marquise Law from 29 yards out to score with 1:43 left in the game to make it 31-19.
The ensuing onside kick was unsuccessful, and Keeton kneeled on the final series to secure the 31-19 victory.
It’s the first time Utah State has been 3-1 in 34 years. USU will face UNLV at Romney Stadium on Sept. 29 at 6 p.m. for homecoming.
“It’s a great feeling,” Andersen said. “It’s a great victory for all of us, it’s a great victory for everybody back home. Like I’ve said a million times, this takes everybody to flip this thing and get it to where we want it to be, which is a consistent winner.”
– tavin.stucki@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter: @stuckiaggies