Sw Texas Stops Vandals

Sun., Sept. 29, 1996

Associated Press

The Idaho Vandals lost four turnovers, and forced none while Southwest Texas State running back Claude Mathis romped for 165 yards and two touchdowns as the Bobcats upset the Vandals 27-21 before 7,047 at Bobcat Stadium.

For the second consecutive year, Idaho has started the season 1-3 while Southwest Texas State, trounced by Eastern Washington last week in Cheney, improved to 3-1 with a perfect 3-0 at home.

Idaho drove inside Southwest Texas State territory on 10 of 12 possessions, but scored just three times. Idaho’s turnovers led to 13 points for Southwest Texas State.

The Vandals outgained the Bobcats 496 yards to 380 yards and had 33 first downs to just 19, but the numbers gave them little consolation.

“We weren’t able to stop the run consistently,”said Idaho coach Chris Tormey. “We were blitzing and playing straight man coverage to stop the run and we had some success, but then we would miss tackles. We would have the quarterback sacked or we would have Mathis in the backfield and we’d miss tackles, or they would break containment.”

“We didn’t punt once this game, we just didn’t capitalize on the opportunities that we had,” said Joel Thomas. “It’s just a matter of execution, but we turned the ball over four times and that killed us. It’s very frustrating for us. We can’t say that we should have done this or that because we didn’t.”

Thomas enjoyed his second consecutive 100-yard plus game, finishing with 128 yards on 22 carries and scoring two touchdowns. He moved into sixth place on Idaho’s career touchdowns list with 25.

Idaho quarterback Ryan Fien came into the game leading the nation in total offense with an average of 418 yards per game. Southwest Texas State’s David Williams came into the game struggling, having thrown for only 322 yards in three games while tossing five interceptions and just one touchdown pass.

But it was Williams who was more effective, completing 10 of 20 passes for 166 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions. He also ran the ball 10 times for 42 yards.

Fien finished 27 of 45 for 307 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions.

He went without a touchdown until he hit Robert Scott on a twoyard scoring play with 6 seconds left in the game.

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Sw Texas Stops Vandals

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