After breaking a handful of passing records last year, the University of Puget Sound offense opened its 2011 season with another all-out aerial assault.
But the Occidental Tigers were ready.
The Occidental defense protected the end zone, and quarterback Luke Collis threw four touchdowns as the Tigers defeated UPS, 30-12, on Saturday afternoon at Baker Field.
The Tigers gave up 367 passing yards but kept the fireworks to a minimum, picking off UPS quarterback George Ka’ai four times in the red zone.
“We didn’t cause enough turnovers and they got way too many of them — especially in the red zone,” UPS coach Jeff Thomas said. “It’s going to be tough to win games when you have four turnovers in the opposing red zone.”
Perhaps the most costly turnover came midway through the third quarter.Trailing 16-6, the Loggers had an impressive drive to open the quarter, marching the ball down the field to the Occidental 9-yard line. But Aryton Bates picked off Ka’ai in the end zone to end the threat.
“(Ka’ai) was trying to keep us in a position to win, and I like the competitive side of him,” Thomas said. “I would like to see our receivers knock the ball down if they couldn’t catch it. That was the first thing that jumped off the page to me.”
The Tigers cashed in on the ensuing drive, scoring on a 9-yard TD pass from Collis to Matthew Tuckness, as UPS trailed 23-6 after three quarters.
UPS cut the deficit to 23-12 early in the fourth, when Ka’ai hooked up with Adam Kniffin from 10 yards out, but the Loggers turned the ball over on downs at their own 9 after getting the ball back later.
Kniffin, a preseason All-American, finished with 16 receptions for 114 yards and two TDs. UPS had just 30 rushing yards on 19 attempts, while Occidental (1-0) gained 116 yards on the ground.
“We want to be able to run the ball a lot more than we did last year, but we certainly didn’t show it in game one,” Thomas said. “They did a good job of stopping our offensive line at the line of scrimmage. We need to do a better job of blocking. What we won’t do is run the ball just to run the ball. We felt today was our best attempt was to throw it, so we did.”
After missing 2010 with an injury, UPS senior Ross Zuhl caught 10 passes for 71 yards.
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