CEDAR CITY, Utah – Southern Utah started true freshman Mike Sharp at quarterback against Idaho State, the first start of his college career.

He played like a wily veteran.

The Bengals (3-5, 1-4 Big Sky) had no answer for Sharp’s speed or shifty moves as the Thunderbirds defeated Idaho State 19-9 Saturday afternoon.

Despite holding SUU to just 19 points, ISU head coach Mike Kramer was not happy with his team’s performance.

“Defensively, that’s about as bad as we can play,” he said. “We left them on the field all day, we never harassed the quarterback – who’s a freshman – we never corralled him and we never stopped him. He was their only weapon and we couldn’t handle it.”

Sharp, who took over for normal starter Aaron Cantu in the fourth quarter of SUU’s loss at Eastern Washington last weekend,  rushed for 157 yards and a touchdown on 31 carries, and threw for 178 more as he accounted for 80 percent (335 yards) of Southern Utah’s 418 total offensive output.

Sharp ran on designed quarterback keepers as well as scrambled when he found space.

“They dropped a lot of people into pass coverage,” said Southern Utah head coach Ed Lamb. “A lot of times they were leaving a four-man rush. Mike had his five blockers pass protecting for him, and if he saw a hole, he took it.”

Even though Saturday was Sharp’s first start for the Thunderbirds, Kramer says there is no excuse for his team to not be prepared.

“We saw him in the last quarter against Eastern Washington,” he said. “He played outstanding in that game and we had no reason he wasn’t going to play outstanding today. When a team is so one-dimensional at quarterback, and you can’t stop him, that’s anemic.”

Southern Utah struck first on a 38-yard field goal from Colton Cook. The Thunderbirds tacked on seven more when Sharp scored from 1 yard out.

Idaho State responded late in the second period when quarterback Justin Arias hit a wide open Cameron Richmond in the back of the end zone for a 4-yard touchdown pass. Brendon Garcia missed the extra point when it bounced off the right upright.

The Bengals went into the half trailing 10-6.

ISU found its mojo midway through the third quarter after linebacker Mitch Beckstead intercepted Sharp. The Bengals quickly drove down to the Southern Utah 23 and looked poise to take the lead. Tight end Tyler Wright broke free on the next play and appeared to be all alone in the corner of the end zone, but SUU’s LeShaun Sims recovered defensively, made a spectacular play and intercepted Arias.

“For him to keep his concentration and rally back like that is impressive,” Lamb said of Sims. “It looked like we blew that coverage. He did a good job of getting back, tipping the ball and getting it.”

Idaho State struggled offensively, gaining just 254 total yards. Arias was 22 of 44 for 241 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. On the ground, the Bengals had just 13 yards on 12 attempts.

“When we can’t run the ball like that, we become one-dimensional,” Kramer said. “Their quarterback simply outplayed our quarterback. Our receivers didn’t make enough dynamic plays for us to win. We only had one dynamic play on the day, and it led to a field goal.”

That dynamic play was a 40-yard completion to Luke Austin that got the Bengals to the Southern Utah 36-yard line. Garcia hit his second field goal of the game six plays later to bring the score to 16-9 with more than five minutes left in the game.

ISU needed a defensive stop to get the ball back and cut into the lead even more, but Sharp and the Thunderbirds would not yield. Cook banged home his fourth field goal of the game to seal the deal.

“All and all, a very good performance by Southern Utah and really a subpar, fallback effort by our guys across the board,” Kramer said. “I have no idea whether it’s a step up, down or around.”

The Bengals return home next Saturday for a contest with Big Sky power Eastern Washington (6-2, 4-0). Kick off from Holt Arena is at 3:05 p.m.