'Dogs focus on moving forward
Team, coach say there is no excuse for loss; only thing left to do is focus on Liberty Bowl on Dec. 31
Joseph Vasquez / The Collegian
Devyn McDonald caught a 39-yard pass from Paul Pinegar to get a first down for Fresno State in the fourth quarter. Fresno State finished out that same drive on a 1-yard pass to Devyn McDonald for to cut the lead 33-16. Those were the only two receptions for McDonald in the game. |
By Maggie Thach
The Collegian
At least the Bulldogs still have the Liberty Bowl on New Year’s Eve in Memphis, Tenn. The only thing for the team to do is to look ahead and just forget about its last performance, a shocking 40-28 loss to the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs.
For the third year in a row, Fresno State must settle for third place with an 8-4 overall and 6-2 conference record. That wasn’t the case a little over three weeks ago when the Bulldogs broke Boise State’s 31-conference game winning streak. Louisiana Tech was the barrier as the Bulldogs missed out on their best opportunity to win a piece of the WAC title.
“We haven’t showed up when we play them,” said quarterback Paul Pinegar, who was named the team’s Most Valuable Player at the annual fooball awards. “They’re a good team and we just haven’t showed up with our A-game the last thre years. Fortunately, we have another game to play in the Liberty Bowl. We have a chance to be a bowl champion.”
The dream for the title dissipated in the first half, particularly in the second quarter. Bryson Sumlin’s fumble with 11:06 left in the half was recovered by Tech’s Moqut Ruffins. LA Tech scored a field goal on the ensuing drive.
Fresno State got the ball back only to have a Wendell Mathis fumble. Again, Tech scored on the turnover.
“We had five turnovers and four turnovers in the first half,” head coach Pat Hill said. “I don’t have the answers for those things.”
The other two turnovers were two back-to-back Pinegar interceptions. LA Tech made the best of the situation scoring on every turnover the Bulldogs committed pushing the halftime score to 26-3.
The fifth and final turnover was Pinegar’s third interception with 4:01 left in the third quarter. Interceptions have been more common for Pinegar as he threw eight against USC, Nevada and Louisiana Tech combined.
“The interceptions are part of the game. It’s football,” Pinegar said. “It’s unfortunate. We had five turnovers we couldn’t overcome.”
Eight penalities didn’t help out either.
“We had everything going to control our destiny but we screwed it,” Garrett McIntyre said. “I don’t think the team knows how to handle success very well and we proved that in the last three games. I apologize to all the fans. We just didn’t get it done and there’s nothing we can do about it.”
Hill suggests the thing to do now is focus on school for finals and then re-group to prepare for the Liberty Bowl against Tulsa, who got to the bowl by beating Central Florida 44-27 for its first league title in 20 years.
“They need a little bit of time off right now. It’s been a long season. The drive has been hard,” Hill said.
“We’re not going to change things. We just need a little rest right now. We need to get ready for finals.
Then we need to get back to work and get ready for a bowl game.”
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