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PROVO, Utah -- The BYU football team won 23-17 over the Washington Huskies in front of a sell-out crowd of 63,771 Saturday night for its first win of the season.
Sophomore Eathyn Manumaleuna tipped a pass on a Washington fourth-down attempt that fell incomplete at the BYU 27-yard line with 1:55 left in the game. After BYU held the Huskies scoreless for the second half, the Cougars were able to hold on for the victory.
“I was proud of our team tonight; it was a complete victory,” BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall said. “Our offense played well enough to win, our defense played well enough to win, and we won the field-position battle.”
The duo of Cougar quarterbacks, Jake Heaps and Riley Nelson, proved to be successful, ending up with identical passing yardage. The freshman Heaps finished 13-of-23 for 131 yards while Nelson went 11-of-17 for 131 yards and two touchdowns. Nelson’s ground game added 45 yards on eight carries.
“There was no script," Mendenhall said of BYU's two-quarterback system. "Riley was going to take the first series and Jake the second and we just went from there. They both looked poised and confident, regardless of the drive.”
Junior JJ Di Luigi had a big night for the Cougars, coming up with 152 all-purpose yards. Di Luigi caught four passes for 83 yards and touchdown, while adding 13 rushes for 69 yards.
“JJ Di Luigi met my expectations,” Mendenhall said. “It’s great to see a player that labors in the program and battles and finally does really well.”
After keeping Washington off the board in the third, BYU’s defense again held the Husky offense scoreless for the fourth quarter. Senior safety Andrew Rich totaled nine tackles while senior linebacker Shane Hunter added nine of his own. Junior linebacker Jordan Pendleton had eight tackles including half a sack. Senior defensive back Brian Logan contributed with three pass breakups on the night.
“Coach Jaime Hill called a great game,” Mendenhall said. “I was really impressed with the job he did. I have not been in a defensive meeting so it was great to see it come together.”
The Huskies got on the board first with 10:02 left in the first quarter with a seven play, 73-yard drive. Quarterback Jake Locker finished off the drive by completing a 19-yard touchdown pass to receiver Jermaine Kearse.
BYU nabbed its first score of the game on a safety with a botched snap by the Huskies. With 4:30 left in the first quarter, the snap went high over punter Will Mahan’s head, rolling 39 yards into the end zone before Mahan tossed the ball out of the back of the end zone to give BYU two points.
The Cougars scored again on a 22-yard field goal by Mitch Payne with 31 seconds left in the first quarter. Heaps was 3-for-5 for 46 yards on the drive before an incomplete pass on third down inside the Washington 5-yard line brought out the field goal unit.
In the second quarter, Nelson was able to march the Cougars down the field for their first touchdown of the day. Nelson found true freshman Joshua Quezada for his first career reception, a nine-yard touchdown pass in the back of the end zone to give BYU its first lead of the game. Nelson scrambled to convert the two-point conversion to put the Cougars up 13-7.
Washington answered back with Locker running for a nine-yard scramble to the end zone to put the Huskies back on top with 8:43 left until half. Kicker Erik Folk added to the Washington lead with a 54-yard field goal to end the half, putting the Huskies up 17-13.
After stopping the Huskies first drive of the second half, Heaps led the Cougars on a 58-yard scoring drive that ended in a 29-yard field goal by Payne. The 11-play drive featured Di Luigi running for 28 yards on three carries and Bryan Kariya picking up 14 yards on three attempts.
BYU’s tandem of quarterbacks continued the scoring soon after with Nelson finding Di Luigi over the middle for a 48-yard touchdown strike to put the Cougars back on top 23-17 for good with 4:23 left in the third quarter.
Washington's Locker had 266 yards on 20-of-37 passing and one touchdown, with 29 yards and another touchdown on 11 carries. Running back Chris Polk picked up 92 yards on 16 carries to lead the Huskies. Kearse added 108 yards receiving on five catches and one touchdown.
Next week BYU travels to Colorado Springs to take on Air Force on Saturday at 2 p.m. The game will be televised live on VERSUS.
BYU vs. Washington
Score by Quarters 1 2 3 4 Score
----------------- -- -- -- -- -----
Washington.......... 7 10 0 0 - 17 Record: (0-1)
BYU................. 5 8 10 0 - 23 Record: (1-0)
Scoring Summary:
1st 10:02 WASH - Kearse, J. 19 yd pass from Locker, Jake (Folk, Erik kick), 7-73 3:03, WASH 7 - BY 0
04:30 BY - TEAM safety, , WASH 7 - BY 2
00:31 BY - PAYNE, Mitch 22 yd field goal, 9-66 3:53, WASH 7 - BY 5
2nd 12:08 BY - QUEZADA, Joshua 9 yd pass from NELSON, Riley (NELSON, Riley rush), 8-47 2:36, WASH 7 - BY 13
08:43 WASH - Locker, Jake 9 yd run (Folk, Erik kick), 9-80 3:25, WASH 14 - BY 13
00:00 WASH - Folk, Erik 54 yd field goal, 11-63 1:55, WASH 17 - BY 13
3rd 06:59 BY - PAYNE, Mitch 29 yd field goal, 11-58 5:33, WASH 17 - BY 16
04:23 BY - DI LUIGI, JJ 48 yd pass from NELSON, Riley (PAYNE, Mitch kick), 3-48 0:56, WASH 17 - BY 23
WASH BY
FIRST DOWNS................... 20 23
RUSHES-YARDS (NET)............ 31-128 33-146
PASSING YDS (NET)............. 266 262
Passes Att-Comp-Int........... 39-20-0 40-24-0
TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS..... 70-394 73-408
Fumble Returns-Yards.......... 0-0 0-0
Punt Returns-Yards............ 0-0 2-26
Kickoff Returns-Yards......... 3-20 4-72
Interception Returns-Yards.... 0-0 0-0
Punts (Number-Avg)............ 6-45.2 6-37.2
Fumbles-Lost.................. 2-0 2-0
Penalties-Yards............... 5-66 6-60
Possession Time............... 27:48 32:12
Third-Down Conversions........ 5 of 15 5 of 16
Fourth-Down Conversions....... 0 of 3 1 of 1
Red-Zone Scores-Chances....... 2-2 3-3
Sacks By: Number-Yards........ 0-0 1-4
RUSHING: Washington-Polk, Chris 16-92; Callier, Jesse 2-40; Locker, Jake
11-29; Fogerson, Johri 1-6; Mahan, Will 1-minus 39. BYU-DI LUIGI, JJ 13-69;
NELSON, Riley 8-45; KARIYA, Bryan 8-20; CHAMBERS, O'Nei 1-8; HEAPS, Jake 1-6;
TEAM 2-minus 2.
PASSING: Washington-Locker, Jake 20-37-0-266; Aguilar, Devin 0-1-0-0;
TEAM 0-1-0-0. BYU-HEAPS, Jake 13-23-0-131; NELSON, Riley 11-17-0-131.
RECEIVING: Washington-Kearse, J. 5-108; Aguilar, Devin 5-57; Bruns, Cody
3-25; Callier, Jesse 2-15; Polk, Jordan 1-25; Izbicki, Chris 1-15; Sylvester, A.
1-9; Polk, Chris 1-7; Goodwin, D. 1-5. BYU-ASHWORTH, Luke 6-24; DI LUIGI, JJ
4-83; WILSON, Richard 3-45; JACOBSON, McKay 3-33; CHAMBERS, O'Nei 3-21; MATHEWS,
Marcus 1-17; MUEHLMANN, Mike 1-15; HOFFMAN, Cody 1-14; QUEZADA, Joshua 1-9;
KARIYA, Bryan 1-1.
INTERCEPTIONS: Washington-None. BYU-None.
FUMBLES: Washington-Mahan, Will 1-0; Locker, Jake 1-0. BYU-CHAMBERS,
O'Nei 1-0; DI LUIGI, JJ 1-0.
SACKS (UA-A): Washington-None. BYU-PENDLETON, Jord 0-1; FUGA, Romney 0-1.
TACKLES (UA-A): Washington-Foster, Mason 9-5; Aiyewa, Victor 8-2;
Williams, Nate 5-7; Fellner, Nathan 7-2; Trufant, D. 4-1; Richardson, Q. 3-1;
Elisara, Cam. 2-1; Crichton, Talia 1-3; Shamburger, W. 2-0; Dennison, Cort 0-3;
Gilliland, G. 1-0; Tucker, Tim 1-0; Houston, Matt 1-0; Thompson, E. 0-1.
BYU-RICH, Andrew 6-3; HUNTER, Shane 5-4; THOMAS, Steven 4-2; PENDLETON, Jord
2-6; OGLETREE, Brand 3-3; BRADLEY, Brando 3-3; FUGA, Romney 1-4; FRAZIER, Jameso
1-2; SO'OTO, Vic 1-2; LEUNG-WAI, Aven 1-1; JORGENSEN, Aust 1-1; LOGAN, Brian
1-0; GALEA'I, Jray 1-0; MANUMALEUNA, Ea 0-2; PUTNAM, Matt 0-1; HAGUE, Mike 0-1;
Stadium: LaVell Edwards Attendance: 63771
Kickoff time: 5:04 pm End of Game: 8:28 pm Total elapsed time: 3:24
Temperature: 92 Wind: ssw 8 Weather: Clear
19th-consecutive sellout