The ASU football team avoided an upset in their season-opener Saturday night as they defeated the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks 30-13 at Sun Devil Stadium.
The No. 15 Sun Devils were led by senior quarterback Rudy Carpenter who completed 22 of 28 passes for 388 yards and one touchdown.
Carpenter got ASU on the board early, engineering a five-play, 80-yard drive that was capped off by a 52-yard touchdown pass to sophomore wide receiver Kerry Taylor.
The Sun Devil offensive line, which came into the game as possibly the team’s biggest question mark, allowed just one sack and gave Carpenter ample time to find his receivers.
Senior wide receiver Michael Jones led ASU in receiving with six catches for 162 yards. Taylor had 92 yards on four receptions.
The Sun Devils did not have as much success on the ground as Carpenter was the team’s leading rusher with five carries for 43 yards. Junior running back Dimitri Nance had 30 yards on 11 carries but did score two touchdowns for ASU. Nance received the bulk of the carries in place of senior running back Keegan Herring, who sat out with a hamstring injury.
The Sun Devils did not give up a score until the end of the third quarter when NAU kicker Robbie Dehaze connected on a 21-yard field goal.
