Arizona Tunes Up in Style

TUCSON, Ariz. —  Keith Smith threw two touchdown passes to Dennis Northcutt and ran for a third score, all in the first 16 minutes, as No. 14 Arizona defeated Northeast Louisiana, 45-7, Saturday night.

The Wildcats (7-1) scored touchdowns on five of their first six possessions against overmatched Northeast Louisiana (2-5), a former Division I-AA team which has been outscored 149-24 this season in road games against Kansas State, Florida and Arizona.

The 45 points were the most for the Wildcats in a non-overtime game since they beat Utah State 49-3 to open the 1992 season.

Arizona, which has an important Pacific 10 Conference game next week against No. 12 Oregon, had a 35-7 lead at the half. The Wildcats sputtered the rest of the way on offense, but their defense had a season-high eight sacks.

Arizona scored twice in the first 1:15 of the second quarter to go ahead 28-0. On the first play of the period, Smith threw to Northcutt, who scored on a 24-yard play with the help of a crunching block from Jeremy McDaniel.

A little over a minute later, Chris McAlister, returning a punt for the first time this season, raced 68 yards down the left sideline for the touchdown to put the Wildcats up 28-0 with 13:45 left in the half.