Pick your poison

Wyoming's Tyrone Saterfield returns an interception for a touchdown during the Cavalry's win over Utah on Saturday. Photo by KERRY HULLER, Star-Tribune.

By DAVID BUCK
Star-Tribune staff writer

Sometimes four interceptions isn't enough.

Wyoming Cavalry defensive back Corey Roberson picked off four passes in Saturday's 62-7 win over the Utah Saints at the Casper Events Center, but he wishes he had one more.

"I should have had that. It was coming right to me," Roberson said. "That would have been five."

The play Roberson was talking about happened early in the second quarter, and would have been his first interception of the game.

But Cavs defensive end Tyrone Saterfield picked off the pass before it could reach the secondary.

Saterfield returned the interception 45 yards for a touchdown.

"He actually stiff-armed one guy and hurdled over him at one time, then outran the whole team," Roberson said of Saterfield's score.

Roberson couldn't be too angry about not getting that interception, though. He said four is the most he's had in a game, with his previous high of three coming two years ago when he was playing in Rapid City, S.D.

Another reason Roberson can shake off that play is because he knows Saterfield and the rest of the defensive line helped create the interception.

"I give all the credit to the defensive line," Roberson said. "The defensive line, without them the secondary wouldn't be anything. If they don't get pressure we could be back there running around forever, someone could get open."

Wyoming coach Dan Maciejczak agreed.

"They do a great job of stopping run and eliminating that run game for us so we can focus on secondary coverages instead of stopping run," Maciejczak said of the Cavs' d-line.

The Cavs finished with eight interceptions in their win over the Saints. In addition to the picks by Roberson and Saterfield, Tanner Tetrault had two and DeAndre Phillips one.

"That's a huge momentum breaker," Roberson said. "That's the difference between 62-7 or 62-56. It's a big difference. That can break a team's heart."

The Saints' heart was broken multiple times by the Cavs. Four of Wyoming's interceptions came from inside the Cavs' 5-yard line.

"Interceptions is always good," Roberson said. "I'm getting older so I don't like to do all the hitting anymore. So I like to get the glory elsewhere. As much as we can get the ball back to the offense, the better chance we have to win."

'BREAD AND BUTTER': Wyoming's offense had a balanced attack with four rushing touchdowns as well as four passing TDs. The Cavs' also had a balanced rushing game with two of running back James Jones' scores coming from direct snaps, while two came from handoffs from quarterback Matt Strand.

"We did it four to five times," Jones said of the direct snaps. "It was one of those plays that Majiec (Wyoming coach Dan Majieczak) made up in the middle of the game last week. He's like 'lets try this' and we did it and it worked, and it's been working ever since."

Jones scored on runs of 12 and 30 yards on direct snaps.

"He reads blocks real well, so we kind of started running that direct snap and messing around with that," Maciejczak said.

Jones said that defenses do not expect him to get the ball initially, and that him already being in motion doesn't give the defense time to react.

"It became my bread-and-butter running play," Jones said.

Contact sports reporter David Buck at (307) 266-0596 or david.buck@trib.com.

Cavs Tracker

ROBERSON'S RAMPAGE: Cavs defensive back Corey Roberson had four interceptions against the Utah Saints.

EIGHT IS GREAT: Wyoming finished with eight interceptions against Utah.

HE SAID IT: "Interceptions is always good. I'm getting older so I don't like to do all the hitting anymore, so I like to get the glory elsewhere. As much as we can get the ball back to the offense, the better chance we have to win." -- Roberson.