FAU looked fierce as they quickly took the lead against the Wyoming Cowboys, but in the end they could not escape the fate of a 30-28 loss.

The Owls started strong, with a touchdown three plays into the game, but their quick start at Lockhart Stadium on Oct. 3 would not last as the Cowboys responded with a touchdown of their own in a game that saw the Owls fall to 0-4.

“[It was] a very disappointing game tonight. We’re just not scoring enough points as an offense. We need to score more points,” said quarterback Rusty Smith.

In the first quarter, Smith threw a 25-yard pass to Jason Harmon, which helped set up a 36-yard touchdown run on an end-around by wide receiver Chris Bonner.

A 16-yard interception return by cornerback Tavious Polo helped the Owls put more points on the board, giving FAU a 14-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.

But Wyoming’s offense, led by freshman quarterback Austyn Carta-Samuels, proved to be too challenging for the Owls to handle.

“They ran a lot of plays … that’s what they do, and we gotta be ready for that,” said linebacker Michael Lockley. “We played well at times, but obviously, as you see, we let a lot of big plays slide and that’s why we lost the game.

“We were ready; obviously, we made a lot of good plays. We just didn’t make the big plays and stop the quarterback.”

At halftime, the Owls found themselves down by three, as Wyoming had a 17-14 lead.

A stumbling block the Owls defense faced was the loss of defensive tackle Jarvis Givens in the first quarter.

Givens was hit hard and lay motionless on the field for several minutes before he was carried off the field on a stretcher. He was taken to the hospital for a precautionary check on possible head and neck injuries.

“Losing Jarvis, we lost a good player, and I think emotionally all the kids reacted to that, but I thought they rebounded well,” said FAU’s defensive coordinator, Kirk Hoza.

Going into the fourth quarter, the Owls were trailing, but they flirted with a win by scoring a touchdown to lead Wyoming 28-24.

However, they could not stop the Cowboys from picking up another touchdown and taking the game.

“We’re all disappointed [the defense] couldn’t get that stop in the end, but we played pretty well at times through the course of the game,” said Hoza.

Head Coach Howard Schnellenberger was less forgiving toward his defensive unit.

Schnellenberger said: “We couldn’t get the ball back away from them in the fourth quarter, thus we lost another two-point game. It was a very difficult game to sit on the sideline and watch because there was so much ineptitude on our football team, particularly on the defense.”

The Owls defense also admitted to suffering from fatigue and cramps.

Hoza concurred: “We did get a little bit fatigued at the end. I think the last drive we got pushed around a little bit, which [Wyoming] hadn’t been able to do earlier in the evening.”

After the game, the overall consensus of the team was that they need to pick up the slack if they want to have a shot at a bowl game this season.

“I think it’s just a finesse thing, a technique thing. I think we’ve got the will to win; we’ve just got to fix certain things,” said defensive lineman Nick Osborne. “We just need to pick up the intensity, switch some things maybe.”

The Owls’ next game is against North Texas on Oct. 17.