Boxscore

Storm warnings were in effect for Louisiana Tech Saturday as the Golden Hurricane of Tulsa topped the Bulldogs 48-14 before a crowd of 28,862 at Skelly Stadium.

The loss dropped the Bulldogs to 5-6 overall and 3-4 in the Western Athletic Conference while Tulsa climbed to 7-4 and 5-2.

A record-setting performance from Tech running back Ryan Moats was overshadowed by a dominating Tulsa defense that held the Bulldogs to 313 total yards and only 161 through the air.

Tech entered the contest averaging 301.4 passing yards per game.

"It was one of those nights, and Tulsa had a lot to do with that," Tech coach Jack Bicknell said. "They are a very good football team. They have good schemes, and have good players to implement those schemes. I felt we were prepared. We played hard and never gave up, but we just couldn't make plays. We didn't make plays and they did."

Moats set a new Tech record with his sixth consecutive game rushing for at least 100 yards while recording his second career game going over 200 yards. The sophomore out of Dallas also moved into second place in Tech single-season rushing stats with 1,263 yards with one game remaining.

Former Bulldog Jason Davis set Tech's single-season rushing record with 1,351 yards in 1991.

"I felt we could run the football on them, and we did a good job of that," Bicknell said. "But when we got behind, we had to throw that (the running game) out of the window. They simply beat us in all aspects of the game."

Tulsa took an early advantage as quarterback James Kilian's one-yard plunge 4:17 into the game gave the Golden Hurricane a quick 7-0 lead.

Tech managed a 52-yard field goal from Josh Scobee at the 8:50 mark of the first quarter to cut Tulsa's lead to 7-3, but the Golden Hurricane stormed away from there, scoring three more touchdowns before intermission for a 27-3 lead at the half.

The Bulldogs looked like they might make a game of it after intermission as they took the opening second-half kickoff and marched on a 9-play, 72-yard drive culminating with a two-yard scoring run from Moats to cut the Tulsa lead to 27-10 with 12:16 remaining in the third quarter.

But any momentum Tech picked up with the opening second-half drive quickly vanished as on the first play from scrimmage on the ensuing series Tulsa running back Eric Richardson burst free for an 80-yard scoring scamper to put the Golden Hurricane back on top by 24 points.

"This was one of those evenings when you're standing out there and tell yourself that it just wasn't going to be our night," Bicknell said. "I had that feeling early, but in the second half when we scored, I thought we would make it a game. They immediately came back with the long run and stopped any momentum we might have built."

Tulsa would add two more touchdowns on a 42-yard pass from Kilian to Romby Bryant and on a 2-yard toss to Garrett Mills while the Bulldogs would tack on eight final points as quarterback Luke McCown found the corner of the end zone on a 10-yard run followed by a 2-point conversion pass to Eric Newman.

"I thought we really stepped up," Tulsa coach Steve Kragthorpe said. "They were very potent in their passing attack. I knew it would be a difficult challenge for our defense, but they really rose to the occasion. We disrupted their passing game and that's something we definitely wanted to do heading into the game. We knew that would be important."

The Bulldogs suffered another momentum-breaking distraction midway through the third quarter when senior linebacker Antonio Crow went down on the field for approximately 14 minutes as he was strapped to a backboard and carried off on
a stretcher.

Crow was taken to a local hospital for X-rays as a precautionary measure but after the game reported that he had feeling and movement in all extremities and expected to be all right.

Moats finished with his 220 yards and touchdown on 34 attempts for a 6.5 yards per run average while McCown connected on 12-of-25 passes for 161 yards with three interceptions.

The Golden Hurricane picked up five turnovers on the day with four picked passes along with one fumble recovery while only turning the ball over once themselves on a interception by Tech defensive lineman Chris Van Hoy.

"We turned the ball over too much," Bicknell said. "Five turnovers are way too many against a good team. Personal fouls, a substitution penalty -- whatever could possibly have gone wrong for us did."

McCown faced a fierce Tulsa pass rush that resulted in six sacks for 77 yards in losses while being hurried numerous other times. Backup Maxie Causey relieved McCown in the final quarter and was picked off on his only attempted pass.

D.J. Curry led Tech receivers with three catches for 37 yards while Chris Norwood added a pair of receptions for 53 yards.

The Bulldogs have a bye next week before closing out the 2003 season by playing host to Rice in a 2 p.m. contest at Joe Aillet Stadium.