CEDAR CITY — In five previous seasons under Ed Lamb, the Southern Utah football team had never lost a home opener at Eccles Coliseum.

The defense made sure things wouldn’t be any different Saturday night.

Linebacker Matt Holley and defensive back Miles Killebrew returned fumbles for touchdowns, and the SUU defense forced seven turnovers on the way to a 49-0 blanking over the Fort Lewis Skyhawks before an announced crowd of 5,872. Quarterback Aaron Cantu was nearly perfect on the night, going 15-of-16 for 136 yards with four TD passes in just over two quarters of work as the T-Birds improved to 2-0 on the season.

While Cantu was strong again, Lamb said the defense was the clear star of the night.

“Their effort was fantastic,” Lamb said. “Most of the turnovers were caused by good, solid tackles, face-up tackles. … They lost five fumbles, which means our guys were flying to the ball.”

The turnover parade started impressively when Austin Anderson laid a hit on running back Dewaun Wesley that jarred the ball loose and sent it rolling several yards. Holley picked it up and raced untouched to the end zone for a 19-yard TD that made it 14-0 with 4:13 left in the first quarter.

Holley, in his first season back after an LDS mission, said he’s found his groove again by being on the field.

“In the spring, I didn’t have my legs back yet,” said Holley, who had two of the five fumble recoveries and added a sack. “Now getting into the flow has been a lot of fun.”

Even though the T-Birds had limited knowledge on the Skyhawks, who were playing their season opener under new head coach John L. Smith, Holley said keeping the focus wasn’t as hard as it seemed.

“We thought they might run more spread-read option stuff,” Holley said. “That was kind of a gamble, but we made sure we knew our assignments and tried our best to execute them.”

Killebrew got into the touchdown act on the next Fort Lewis series. On a third-down play at the T-Bird 14, Chad Hansen forced Wesley into another fumble that the sophomore scooped up and returned 89 yards on the final play of the first quarter that pushed the lead to 21-0.