Southern Utah gets win in home opener, pulls away from Western Illinois, 37-17

Updated Sep. 24, 2023 12:33 a.m. ET

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CEDAR CITY, Utah (AP) — Justin Miller threw two touchdown passes and Southern Utah scored three unanswered touchdowns in the second half to pull away from Western Illinois, 37-17 in its home opener on Saturday night.

Miller tossed a 10-yard touchdown to Zack Mitchell, and Targhee Lambson capped an 11-play, 62-yard drive with a 2-yard touchdownrun to give the Thunderbirds a 17-3 lead with under seven minutes to play in the first half, but Western Illinois scored a pair of touchdowns in the final 5:14 of the first half to send the game into halftime tied at 17.

Southern Utah (1-3) picked off the Leathernecks' Matt Morrissey three times, including a 60-yard pick-6 by Cody Coleman with :31 left to complete the scoring. Western Illinois had negative yardage in the running game after accounting for minus-28 yards on quarterback sacks.

Miller was 24-of-35 passing for 242 yards but also threw a pair of interceptions. The Thunderbirds managed 96 yards on the ground, led by 41 yards on 16 carries from Braedon Wissler.

Morrissey was 29-of-48 passing for 268 yards and a touchdown to lead the Leathernecks (0-4).

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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll

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