BYU Notches Two Victories on Colorado Trip
BYU Notches Two Victories on Colorado Trip
BYU swept their two-game trip to Colorado and are in a commanding position in the Rocky Mountain D1A Conference.
The Cougars defeated Colorado 41-5 on Thursday night and Colorado State 86-9 on Friday.
BYU Head Coach Steve St. Pierre joked that this harkened back to the two-game playoff weekends of years past.
"I told the guys when I played we had to play a semifinal on Friday and then play Cal the next day, so this was a throwback to that," St. Pierre said. "The guys embraced it and had a great attitude."
The Colorado game was certainly closer and that was perhaps partly a result of the Buffs having played games already, while this was Colorado State's first game of the season. CU held BYU to a 10-5 scoreline in the second half.
Fullback Dylan Renner was a key defensive player for Colorado and outside center Charlie Quinn, just back from injury, impressed. His midfield mate Dylan Ginsberg made some big tackles while scrumhalf Nico Soza did well to get good ball to his runners despite being under pressure all day.
For BYU, St. Pierre said it was good to play a tough, physical side like Colorado.
"We had a lot of unforced errors and we knew against Colorado State that we had to clean that up," said the coach. "We brought along a number of new guys who got good reps and that was important, and our forward pack was really good in the scrums. But we did have a lot of turnovers and that's not good. So what we need to do is just try to get better every day, and I think we did that."
For Colorado State, this was their first game under new Head Coach Jone Naqica and a bit of a trial by fire. They will have somewhat less pressure-filled games and host Air Force this coming weekend.
Meanwhile BYU saw solid performances by their veterans, including Wyatt Parry at flyhalf, center Sole Semu, and prop Billy Tenney, who led the strong scrumming effort.
