Arizona State Rallies Past Northern Arizona

Thursday night, Northern Arizona University gave Arizona State University a bit of a scare for three quarters. The 24th-ranked Sun Devils ended any ideas of an upset with an offensive surge in the final 15 minutes.

Rudy Carpenter threw for 261 yards and two touchdowns, as the Sun Devils were able to rally past Division I-AA Northern Arizona 35-14 on Thursday night.

Chris Baloney 's 35-yard interception return on the first play of the fourth quarter finally gave Arizona State its first lead at 21-14.

Keegan Herring added a 15-yard touchdown run with 11:58 left, and Dmitri Nance ran in from 6 yards to cap a late 91-yard drive that put the Sun Devils in control.

Carpenter was 17-of-24 with one interception, and Arizona State's defense sacked Jason Murrietta nine times, including three by Derron Ware .

Murrietta completed 15 of 20 passes for 259 yards and two long scores, keeping the Lumberjacks tied through three quarters.

Baloney opened the final quarter by stepping in front of intended receiver Kenny Mahone and ran untouched for the score. On Arizona State's next possession, Herring took the handoff right, found no hole and reversed field, went back behind the 25 and found the left corner to cap a three-play drive.

The Lumberjacks held off the Sun Devils in the second half by intercepting a tipped pass by Carpenter in the end zone and then stopping Arizona State at the Northern Arizona 1 on fourth-and-goal with 8:07 left in the first quarter.

Northern Arizona scored twice in the first half on big plays. Murrietta hit Alex Watson with touchdown passes of 80 and 60 yards to give the Lumberjacks the lead both times. Watson caught 11 passes for 206 yards.

Murrietta scrambled and almost was sacked by Kellen Mills before getting the ball to Watson behind Sun Devils safety Zach Catanese with 5:44 left in the first quarter to give Northern Arizona a 7-0 lead.

Arizona State answered with a seven-play, 56-yard drive, capped by Carpenter's 13-yard to Shaun DeWitty with 13:36 left in the half.

But Murrietta and Watson hooked up again with 6:13 left on a screen to the right that put the Lumberjacks back up 14-7.

The Sun Devils took advantage of a 12-yard punt by Rhian Madrid that gave Arizona State the ball at the Sun Devils 40 with 1:52 to go until the break. Carpenter hit DeWitty on a quick 21-yard out, and connected with Ryan Torain one play later on a screen as Torain outran the defense for a 39-yard score to tie it at 14.

Source

• SI.com

Date

Fri 09/01/06, 5:56 am EST

Alex HolowczakHall of Famer

1185 days ago

Score 1

12-yard punt!? What happened?

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Manny StilesMajor Leaguer

1185 days ago

Score 0

ASU has to feel pretty confident now that the pre-season is over...

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Anonymous Fanatic #1

1185 days ago

Score 0

It was a pretty awful game to be at, at least until the interception in the 4th. Their two touchdowns were crap, as both were on plays where we blitzed 9 guys and had our two no-so-great safties give up ridiculous plays for touchdowns. Aside from those two plays, it was a pretty good game defensively. I can't really complain offensively, because we had our third string playing the majority of the game, you can't expect them to do too much.

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Madproof9Red-Shirting

1185 days ago

Score 0

^^^that is me

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The BeastAAA-er

1184 days ago

Score 0

NAU is a Division 1-AA Alex. Don't expect them to have a great punter. Reminds me of the time when I was punting in a quarterfinal game in the flag football tournament and punted about 15 yards forward and 20 in the hair. Hee hee.

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