Daryl Bogard, UNI Football Boosters
Game Date: September 9/15 2023 6:30PM PST | Photography by: Sandrine Scherson
The University Trojans scored four first-quarter touchdowns to cruise to a 44-0 home victory over the Savanna Rebels Thursday night. Koa Saito completed 11 of 18 passes for 218 yards and four touchdowns, two to Blaine Anderson, a 34-yarder to Luke Edwards and a 57-yard bomb to Jonathan Soto. Saito has 928 yards and 16 TD passes and just one pick in four games this year.
The potent passing attack was complemented by big plays on defense and special teams. The defense had 17 plays for loss (including a safety credited to Jonathan Soto).
The defense was led by several individuals. Owen Chiou had eight tackles including two sacks and one more for loss. Richard Bines had half a dozen tackles including three for loss plus a sack.
Eithar Takesh had five tackles including two sacks and scooped up an errant punt for a score. Daniel Bar On had six tackles, two for loss, one sack and a fumble recovery. Pierre Vong notched four tackles including an impressive three on special teams. Damari Carter had an interception.
Anderson also had a 46-yard pick six (another one was called back), made two tackles (one for loss), forced a fumble, broke up a pass, downed a punt on the one yard-line, played long snapper on one extra point and had 165 all-purpose yards. Anderson has 554 all-purpose yards and nine touchdowns on the season.
Each team had nine first downs, but that’s about all that was even. Uni had 203 yards of total offense netting minus 15 yards on the ground. Anderson had four catches for 90 yards. Soto had a pair for 67 yards. Besides Edwards, four other players had a single reception: Jake Rabold (12 yards), Zephyr Reynolds (8 yards), Lucca Clouthier (7 yards) and Carter (no yards).
Savanna had a total of 61 yards of offense (54 rushing on 38 carries to go with just seven in the air). Uni had the ball for just under 17 minutes in the game, not having the ball at all in the running clock fourth quarter. The Trojans converted three of five third down opportunities while holding the Rebels to just two of 10.
Skye Murphy was perfect on six extra point attempts. Andrew Bogard punted twice having the ideal outcome on his second punt: a 43-yard kick downed on the Savanna one-yard line.
Uni improved to 3-2, winning its third consecutive game for the first time since 2017. With the overtime loss vs Portola, this marks the fourth game in a row that Uni has led at or after the end of regulation.
Related Articles: https://ocsportszone.com/uni-football-team-improves-record-to-3-2-with-decisive-victory-over-savanna/