Halliday leads Cougars’ rout of SUU

Redshirt+junior+quarterback+Connor+Halliday+attempts+a+pass+against+Southern+Utah+in+Martin+Stadium%2C+Saturday%2C+Sept.+14%2C+2013.

Redshirt junior quarterback Connor Halliday attempts a pass against Southern Utah in Martin Stadium, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2013.

Throngs of people flooded into Martin Stadium Saturday afternoon for the Cougars’ home opener.

As a coming-out party in front of the home crowd, WSU football defeated the Southern Utah Thunderbirds 48-10 behind Connor Halliday’s five touchdowns.

It wasn’t just the offense that came to play on Saturday. The Cougar defense disrupted a normally accurate Aaron Cantu, intercepting the SUU quarterback three times. One of the interceptions came from cornerback Damante Horton, who picked up right where he left off in the USC game.

Horton picked off the pass from Cantu and ran it back for a touchdown for the second game in a row. This time, the senior took it 72 yards for the score.

“I thought there were real bright spots in all phases,” Head Coach Mike Leach said. “I thought the fans were fantastic, especially our student section really turned out. We were disjointed at times. I thought defensively, we really heated up the second half. Offensively we did a good job getting big plays.”

Those big plays came primarily through the air, as Halliday threw for 383 yards in the game.

“We played real well,” Halliday said. “We got the ball down the field a little bit, was able to run the ball, and the defense played real well. It was great.”

The Cougars started hot as Halliday marched the team down the field in less than two minutes for the first touchdown of the game. Redshirt sophomore Dominique Williams caught his first touchdown of the day from Halliday, a 43-yarder that immediately ignited the crowd and lit up the new scoreboard on the east side of the stadium.

The offensive onslaught did not stop there. After a 14-play drive that ended in a 40-yard field goal by Thunderbirds kicker Colton Cook, Halliday went back to work. With less than four minutes to play in the first quarter, Halliday hit Isiah Myers for a 10-yard touchdown to make it 14-3.

Williams had another touchdown reception later in the second quarter for 55 yards, which made the score 21-10.

Halliday passed to both his receivers and running backs all game and connected with a total of 10 different targets. The Cougars scored in every quarter and put up 28 points in the first half alone. Horton capped off the first half with his interception return, but he said he likes watching the offense put up points.

“That was probably the first time since I’ve been here at WSU that we’ve been able to step on their throat and not let up and keep the gas pedal down and not give them any chance of coming back in the game, so that was another step for us as a team,” Halliday said.

The defense certainly had a chokehold on the Thunderbirds in the second half. SUU did not score in the final 30 minutes, while the Cougars continued to score.

“I felt like we started playing together toward the end, and in the beginning, we had some little issues, but we worked it out,” Horton said.

After WSU secured a comfortable lead, redshirt freshman Austin Apodaca replaced Halliday in the game and completed three of his seven pass attempts and threw for 27 yards. This was Apodaca’s Cougar debut.

The Cougars will prepare for their Homecoming game against the Idaho Vandals this week.