Provo • In a college football opener that was closer than almost everybody expected, BYU held off Portland State 20-6 on Saturday in front of 55,427 sun-drenched fans at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
With temperatures in the mid-90s, the mistake-prone Cougars struggled offensively against the Football Championship Subdivision opponent, and needed to play their starters the entire contest.
Tanner Mangum threw a touchdown pass to Neil Pau’u and Squally Canada rushed for a 1-yard score for BYU in the first half. The Cougars sputtered offensively after that, though, and had only 270 yards of offense through three quarters against a Big Sky Conference team that went 3-8 last season.
After punting on their first two possessions, the Cougars heated up at the end of the first quarter when Mangum threw a 36-yard pass to freshman tight end Matt Bushman. Mangum’s TD pass to the freshman Pau’u was the first touchdown of the season. Two chop-blocking penalties thwarted a couple drives.
The Cougars took a 14-0 lead after Mangum and Talon Shumway connected on a 33-yard pass to the PSU 1.
The Vikings then put together a 17-play, 87-yard drive for a touchdown that took nearly six minutes off the clock and was aided by a 15-yard personal foul for a late hit on BYU cornerback Chris Wilcox. Portland State converted on fourth-and-6 twice and found the end zone when freshman quarterback Jalani Eason hit Darnell Adams on a slant.
The Cougars caught a break when Thomas Shoaf recovered a Mangum fumble deep in their territory, but that drive also stalled and BYU went into halftime with a 14-6 lead.
Neither team scored in the third quarter. Rhett Almond’s 27-yard field goal gave BYU a 17-6 lead with 13:22 remaining in the game after an apparent touchdown run by Kavika Fonua was wiped away by an illegal formation penalty. Almond missed a 33-yard field goal attempt with 4:08 remaining in the game, but he did make a 35-yarder with 2:09 remaining.
This story will be updated.