Fresno State Rolls to 37-18 Win Over Tulsa

Coach Pat Hill insists No. 11 Fresno State won’t drop its guard after a 37-18 victory at Tulsa on Saturday.

“Our players understand what’s in front of them,” Hill said. “They understand that they have to play one game at a time. If they keep winning there could be a prize for them.”

Fresno State (4-0, 1-0 in the Western Athletic Conference) plays a schedule the rest of the way that appears light compared to its first four games. The Bulldogs opened with victories over Colorado and ranked teams Oregon State and Wisconsin.

David Carr passed for 314 yards and three touchdowns for the Bulldogs. Bernard Berrian had 169 receiving yards and two touchdowns. Fresno State’s 513 yards of offense was a season high.

“It was a good win,” Carr said. “We had some good plays at the beginning of the game, then I think we got a little lackadaisical in the middle, but we picked it up and finished pretty good.”

For Tulsa (1-1, 0-1), the loss came after a 23-day break that included last week’s postponement. In team history, the Golden Hurricane is 6-11 at home against nationally ranked teams.

“I’m obviously disappointed with the outcome of the football game,” second-year Coach Keith Burns said. “I’m not disappointed with the fight, the want-to and the effort that our team put forth.”

Fresno State’s Josh Levi rushed for 107 yards, including 68 on one fourth-quarter play. The performance was the best for a Bulldog rusher in almost two years.

For Tulsa, Eric Richardson ran for 119 yards and a fourth-quarter touchdown and had 69 yards receiving. But the Golden Hurricane failed to capitalize on early drives that stalled inside Fresno State territory.

“Fresno State, to me, played like they should be ranked No. 11 in the nation,” Richardson said.

Josh Blankenship was 20 of 37 for 187 yards. But Bryce McGill picked off two of Blankenship’s passes.

Rodney Wright’s five-yard touchdown run and Carr’s 42-yard TD pass to Berrian put the Bulldogs up, 31-3, at 4:31 in the third quarter. Asen Asparuhov added two field goals, and Richardson and reserve quarterback Tyler Gooch scored for Tulsa. Gooch ran in a two-point conversion to end the scoring.

Carr had 224 yards passing in the first half, connecting with Berrian for 116 yards--including a 30-yard touchdown pass. Richardson had 95 yards rushing before halftime.

Tulsa had to settle for Chris Earnest’s 47-yard field goal to go up, 3-0, on its first drive after stopping the Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs responded with a nine-play, 80-yard drive in which Carr connected with Marque Davis on a 27-yard touchdown pass at 5:32 in the first quarter.

Carr connected with Berrian for 42 yards and again for 30, with Berrian walking in for the score after being slammed by two Tulsa defenders at once inside the five. Asparuhov added a field goal from 22 yards out as the half expired.

Atlantic Coast

Bryson Spinner’s one-yard touchdown pass to Billy McMullen with a second left gave Virginia (2-1) a 26-24 victory at No. 19 Clemson (2-1) in the conference opener for both teams. With no timeouts, the Cavaliers drove the ball 44 yards in 1:43. The game-winning play came with the final seconds ticking away as Spinner hustled his team to the line after a running play. Spinner, who started but shared quarterbacking duties with fellow sophomore Matt Schaub, went 15 for 25 for 186 yards, throwing for two touchdowns and running for another score .... Bruce Perry rushed for a career-high 276 yards, scoring on runs of 50 and 80 yards, as Maryland (3-0, 2-0) was a 27-20 winner over Wake Forest (2-1, 0-1) at Winston-Salem, N.C. Perry, who came into the game as the nation’s second-leading rusher with 124.5 yards a game, finished with the second-highest rushing total in Maryland history .... Ray Robinson had 123 all-purpose yards and two touchdown runs, and George Anderson recovered a fumble in the end zone with 3:32 left as North Carolina State (2-0) held off Southern Methodist (0-3) for a 26-17 victory at Dallas.

Big East

Brian St. Pierre threw four touchdown passes and William Green rushed for 178 yards in Boston College’s 38-21 victory over Navy at Annapolis, Md. St. Pierre, who completed 41% of his passes in his first two games, was 19 for 25 for 247 yards as Boston College (2-1) had 479 total yards. Navy is 0-3 .... Brad Lewis threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score and Avon Cobourne rushed for 181 yards and a touchdown for West Virginia (2-1) in a 34-14 victory over Kent State (1-2) at Morgantown, W.Va. Lewis completed 27 of 34 passes--both career highs--for 286 yards and West Virginia’s 503 total yards were more than it had in any game last season .... Bowling Green (3-0) was a 42-23 home-field winner over Temple (1-2) despite being outgained 356-248 and having the ball for 11 fewer minutes.

Conference USA

Jeff Aaron threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score as Alabama Birmingham (2-1) scored its most points since moving to Division I-A in a 55-3 home-field win over .Army (0-2) in the conference opener for both teams. Four of Alabama Birmingham’s touchdowns followed Army turnovers, and another came off a blocked punt .... Ben Roethlisberger completed 20 of 25 passes for 264 yards and threw two touchdown passes to lead Miami of Ohio to a 21-14 victory at Cincinnati (1-2).