Boise St. Has Night at Beach

An early hint of victory in its season opener vanished quickly for Cal State Long Beach Saturday night and Boise State came back to defeat the 49ers, 29-10, before a crowd of 6,032 at Veterans Stadium.

Flawless in the first quarter as they built a 10-0 lead, the 49ers did nothing right later and collapsed against the Division I-AA Broncos of the Big Sky Conference.

“It’s really discouraging,” said Long Beach quarterback Jeff Graham, who threw three interceptions, which, along with three 49er fumbles, contributed heavily to the defeat.

Early in the second quarter, the 49ers were on the verge of taking a 17-0 lead. But on fourth-and-one from the Boise State 4-yard line, Graham tried an alley-oop pass to Derek Washington that fell incomplete, and the 49ers were never the same.

Boise outscored the 49ers, 15-0, in the third quarter as Long Beach failed to get a first down.

“We didn’t concentrate and we got outplayed,” Graham said. “I threw stupid passes.”

Mike Black made field goals of 25, 44 and 40 yards for the Broncos in the third quarter. Suddenly trailing, 16-10, the 49er comeback hopes ended on the next play when running back Andre Southerland, who like Graham was a star early, fumbled the ball away. Boise drove 59 yards for a touchdown, scoring on Robby Washington’s 4-yard run.

The Broncos added a final touchdown on a 5-yard scoring run by Bart Hull, son of hockey great Bobby Hull.

Striking an effective balance at the beginning, Long Beach appeared to be in for an easy night.

A 57-yard drive--highlighted by Graham’s passing, Southerland’s running and ending with a 1-yard touchdown run by Phil Wright--gave the 49ers a 7-0 lead midway through the first quarter.

They increased the lead to 10-0 on a 50-yard field goal by David Van Steenkiste.

But in the second quarters, after the 49ers missed their chance to make the game a runaway, Boise State took over.