Isaiah Burse scores three touchdowns, two on punt return, in Bulldogs’ win over the Mustangs
After a four-hour showdown against Rutgers last week, the Fresno State Bulldogs didn’t want to work overtime Saturday night at Bulldog Stadium before a home crowd of 33,260.
The Bulldogs were relentless in their scoring — making a wacky trick play in the process — in their 41-25 win over Cal Poly.
That trick play came in the second quarter. A hook-and-ladder touchdown play was completed where Davante Adams tossed a pass from Derek Carr to offensive lineman Austin Wentworth for a 7-yard score.
“It’s a play that we have practiced from last December,” Fresno State coach Tim DeRuyter said. ‘Every week we have specials in and we like spreading the ball around a little bit. We thought it was a play that we could execute.
“We didn’t want Austin to run too far, so it was a play designed from about the 10-15 yard line.”
“It’s always fun to see a big man score,” quarterback Derek Carr said.
The game got off to a slow start. Kicker Colin McGuire started the scoring for the Bulldogs with a 35-yard field goal three minutes into the game.
But it was a 61-yard punt return touchdown by Isaiah Burse that blew the door wide open for the Bulldogs. In a play that was originally meant to be a fair catch, Burse took advantage of gaps left by the Mustangs’ defense and rode behind the Bulldogs’ blocking for a score.
Burse also scored on a second punt return touchdown in the second quarter. He ended the night with three touchdowns — the third touchdown coming off a 15-yard pass from Carr.
“I knew it was going to happen sooner or later,” Burse said about his punt return touchdowns. “I have to tip my hat to the punt return teams. They blocked their butts off for me.”
The Bulldogs never looked back after that.
Carr was 22 of 31 for 205 yards and three touchdowns. Backup sophomore Brian Burrell took his first career snap late in the third quarter and ended the game completing 1 of 3 passes.
The Bulldogs chose to run the ball more this time around. Leading the pack was Josh Quezada, who started the game and had 18 rushes for 71 yards. Marteze Waller and T.J. Thomas also saw touches. The Bulldogs had 162 total rushing yards.
“The run game is my best friend,” Carr said. “That takes a lot of pressure off me, the offensive line, the receivers. When we run the ball, they can’t double [wide receivers] Davante Adams, Josh Harper and Burse.”
That total still trailed the Mustangs, who finished with 172 rushing yards in the game.
“At the beginning of the game, we ran the ball better,” said DeRuyter. “But we have to be able to get the hard yards — the third-down-and-one and the goal line.”
“We have to do a much better job of getting some movement and getting those critical yards.”
The Mustangs had more juice in the second half of the game, scoring all of their points after halftime. The production increased with backup quarterback Chris Brown, who entered the game after Vince Moraga left with an injury in the third quarter.
Moraga went 6 of 12 for 60 yards while Brown went 9 of 15 with 184 yards and one touchdown.
