LAS VEGAS -- Utah quarterback Travis Wilson ran for three touchdowns and passed for another Saturday, leading the No. 23 Utes to a 45-10 rout of Colorado State in the Las Vegas Bowl.
Wilson rushed for a season-high 91 yards on 11 carries and completed 17 of 26 passes for 158 yards.
Utah (9-4) scored three times in the first quarter and finished with 548 total yards, including 359 on the ground. Devontae Booker ran for 162 yards and a TD and Troy McCormick ran for 86.
Colorado State (10-3) fell behind in the first three minutes and never got its vaunted offense in gear. The Rams played a ranked team for the first time this season -- they have lost their last 16 games against teams in the Top 25.
Garrett Grayson completed 21 of 35 passes for 242 yards, but he was unable to avoid Utah's rush in the second half when the Rams were forced to throw the ball.
Utah, which led the nation with 52 sacks, dropped Grayson twice in the game, one each by Jason Fanaika and Nate Orchard.
Grayson threw an interception and lost a fumble in the fourth quarter, and Utah turned both into touchdowns.
Wilson ran for a 12-yard touchdown and backup running back Bubba Poole scored on a 10-yard run.
Colorado State interim coach Dave Baldwin hoped to confuse Utah's defense by using multiple formations, but it didn't work. The Rams ran the ball early with little success and couldn't mount a passing attack in the second half. They finished with 8 yards rushing.
Rams wide receiver Rashard Higgins caught seven passes for 109 yards.
FCS semifinals: Illinois St. 21
New Hampshire 18
DURHAM, N.H. -- Illinois State scored 15 unanswered points in the fourth quarter as the fifth-seeded Redbirds against top-seeded New Hampshire in the FCS semifinals on Saturday.
Tre Roberson scored on a 47-yard run midway through the fourth quarter to give Illinois State (13-1) the lead and Jon-Marc Anderson ran in the two-point conversion.
Roberson was two of tow on third-down conversions during the drive and capped it off with the big run. The defense held after that and the Redbirds punched their ticket to the FCS Championship against No. 2 North Dakota State, the three-time defending champion and ISU's Missouri Valley Conference rival, on Jan. 10 in Frisco, Texas.
"A great part of our team is how we persevere," said Illinois State coach Brock Spack. "We have a tremendous pursuit to finish the game."
The Wildcat defense just couldn't get off the field in the fourth. After going just two for nine on third-down conversions through three quarters the Redbirds were for five in the fourth.
Roberson passed for 278 yards and ran for another 95 including the touchdown as Illinois State will head to its first championship game.
North Dakota St. 35
Sam Houston St. 3
FARGO, N.D. -- John Crockett ran for three touchdowns and North Dakota State's defense returned to form on Friday night in the FCS semifinals.
The three-time defending champion Bison (14-1) will return to Frisco, Texas, in January with the hopes of becoming the first team in the division formerly known as I-AA to win four straight titles. Appalachian State has also won three in a row.
The Bearkats (11-5) were trying to find their way back to Frisco after losing back-to-back title games to NDSU in 2011 and 2012. Sam Houston State had a statistical edge in the first half but the Bison offense piled up 217 yards in the third quarter to break open a close game.
NDSU scored 28 unanswered points in the second half.
NCAA Division II final
KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Colorado State-Pueblo didn't have a football program seven years ago.
Now, there is none better in Division II.
Chris Bonner threw for 191 yards and a touchdown, Cameron McDondle ran for 113 yards and the ThunderWolves relied on some stingy defense to knock off previously unbeaten Minnesota State 13-0 on Saturday for their first national championship.
Paul Browning had five catches for 84 yards and the game's lone touchdown for Pueblo (14-1), and Greg O'Donnell bounced back from an early miss to connect on his next two field goals.
"To be able to come through and end it like this, it's beautiful," Browning said. "Thank you to Pueblo for allowing us to have a football program. To do this, it's just a mind-blowing experience."
The victory capped a remarkable rebuilding job by ThunderWolves coach John Wristen, who played quarterback for the school when it was known as Southern Colorado in the early 1980s.
The program was disbanded along with several others in cost-cutting moves in 1985, and Wristen was brought on board in 2007 to revive it. Pueblo won four games the following year and simply kept improving, going unbeaten in the regular season the three previous seasons.
NCAA Division III final
SALEM, Va. -- Vince Kehres has been a head coach for 30 games in his career, and part of the staff at Mount Union for 10 of its 11 national championships.
He doesn't have a lot of experience at losing, and the second-year Purple Raiders coach was a man of few words after his career record fell to 28-2 on Friday night with a 43-34 loss to Wisconsin-Whitewater in the NCAA Division III championship game.
"They're just a great team," Kehres said when asked what has made the Warhawks so tough for the Purple Raiders. Whitewater has won six of the last seven meetings, all in the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl. "Hard to beat," he continued. ... They have good players. They execute well. Well coached."
And the Purple Raiders, he said, could have been better coached in the title game.
Late in the first half, after the Warhawks' Brady Grayvold intercepted Kevin Burke's pass and returned it for a touchdown, giving the Warhawks a 27-14 lead, Kehres opted to try to score with under a minute left.
Burke threw deep, was intercepted again and the Warhawks turned it into a field goal.
"I called the deep pass before halftime. We probably should have just run the ball and got in the locker room," Kehres said. "We maybe pressed a bit and part of it was poor coaching decisions."
Sports on 12/21/2014