Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
LSU
Bulldogs Fall To LSU In Death Valley
10/21/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 22, 2006
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Dwayne Bowe caught a 58-yard touchdown pass to tie the LSU record for career scoring catches and ice the No. 14 Tigers' 38-6 victory over Fresno State on Saturday night.
The senior receiver has 21 touchdown catches in his career and has at least four more regular season games to pass current Tampa Bay Buccaneers receiver Michael Clayton for the school record.
Hauling in the pass over the middle about 20 yards downfield and using a slashing run to get to the end zone, Bowe surpassed the 2,000-yard mark for his career, now with 2,033.
Craig "Buster" Davis returned a punt 77 yards for a score and later caught a 30-yard touchdown pass for LSU. Senior running back Alley Broussard, who was benched a week ago, returned to score a 21-yard touchdown.
JaMarcus Russell was 15-of-19 passing for 210 yards and two touchdowns, playing into the fourth quarter at home for the first time this season.
LSU (6-2) has registered lopsided victories in all six of its home games, but this one was closer than the others for the better part of three quarters.
Fresno State kicker Clint Stitser made field goals of 35 and 29 yards, the second one getting the Bulldogs (1-6) as close as 17-6 midway through the third quarter.
But the Tigers responded with a six-play, 67-yard scoring drive capped by Broussard's score as the Tigers began to pull away. Bowe scored on LSU's next drive, then Russell hit Davis to make it 38-6 with just under 10 minutes remaining.
Fresno State quarterback Sean Norton, who played well in relief of Tom Brandstater in a lopsided loss to Hawaii a week earlier, was named the Bulldogs starter this week and completed 13-of-20 passes for 134 yards against LSU. He was sacked four times, however, and did not lead a touchdown drive. It was the fourth time this season LSU's defense has held an opponent out of the end zone.
LSU also held running back Dwayne Wright, who came in averaging 113 yards, to 43 yards on 15 carries.
The opening kickoff was delayed about 19 minutes because of lightning that struck nearby during heavy rain in the hours leading up to the game and the stadium appeared to be less than half full. The rain had stopped by the time the game had gotten under way, but the field was saturated and splashed as players were tackled.
Not that the sloppy turf slowed down LSU, which has made a habit of fast starts at home.
On LSU's opening drive, Trindon Holliday took a pitch and bolted through huge hole off tackle before bouncing outside for a 38-yard touchdown. Minutes later, Davis cleanly hauled in a punt, darted past a handful of tacklers, then sprinted along the sideline to make it 14-0 before seven minutes had elapsed.
LSU has outscored visiting teams by a combined total of 94-0 during the first quarter of six games in Death Valley.
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