USU bites Huskies on the road
Utah State University Head Coach Mick Dennehy has been right. He has continually said the USU football team will improve as the season moves on. And that they have done.
The first improvement came as they defeated Idaho State University 28-27 on Oct. 20 at Romney Stadium for the Homecoming game.
Next, the Aggies showed it wasn’t just a fluke they were able to find the win column as they defeated the University of Central Florida 30-27 on Oct. 27, once again at Romney Stadium.
So, the obvious question was if the Aggies could continue to win, this time on the road.
The answer was yes.
Utah State held on to the 38-31 victory over the University of Connecticut Saturday morning in Storrs, Conn.
“We have a tendency to make these way more exciting than we need to,” Dennehy said. “We were right on the verge of putting them away. For three
quarters we played as well as we have all year. We just didn’t finish. But we found a way to hang on.”
The Aggies improved their record to 3-5 as the Huskies fell to 2-7.
Emmett White led the Aggies with two touchdowns and 117 yards rushing. White scored his first touchdown of the day on a 3-yard run in the second quarter. His second touchdown came off a 6-yard scoring pass from Jose Fuentes in the third quarter.
It wasn’t as easy as the team might have wished it to be, however, as UConn rallied from a 38-10 deficit to eventually pull within a touchdown and extra point of USU.
It was a battle of penalties in the second half of play which allowed the Huskies to get back in the game. Both teams combined for 222 yards in penalties.
A slue of pass-interference calls kept UConn going on two scoring drives in the second half.
Another contributing factor toward the second half struggle by the Aggies could be the absence of White, who sat out most of the second half with a sore right knee.
The Huskies began to play together and scored on three consecutive possessions.
UConn’s Wes Timko found the end zone from 34-yards out with 4:57 left in the third quarter.
Cliff Hill scored on a 4-yard pass from Dan Orlovsky beginning the fourth quarter, cutting the Aggie lead to 38-24.
With a little more than five minutes remaining, Orlovsky helped his team’s cause, cutting the USU lead to 38-31 on a 1-yard plunge.
The 38-31 score would be as close as the Huskies would get.
With White back in the game, the team relied on him and ball control to seal the victory.
With only 25 seconds remaining in the game, Aggie Jorge Tapia intercepted a pass by Orlovsky on the Huskies 30-yard line and ran it back to the 7-yard line to end the game.
Fuentes completed 20 of 31 passes for 234 yards and three touchdowns for the Aggies.
As usual, the Aggies were first to find the scoreboard as they scored on their opening drive, moving the ball 65 yards in less than two minutes of play.
Casey Poppinga caught a 10-yard pass, giving the Aggies a 7-0 lead.
The Aggies scored again on a 31-yard interception return for a touchdown by cornerback Tony Walker.
USU finished the first half of play with a 28-10 lead including a 10-yard reception by Chris Stallworth and the aforementioned run by White.
The only UConn first half touchdown came from Jamal Lundy, who recovered a fumbled punt in the end zone.
The Aggies will be back on home ground Saturday to take on the Weber State Wildcats and then head on the road again for a game against South Florida University on Nov. 24 and Fresno State University on Dec. 1.