Northern Arizona had to find some early-season magic to escape with a season-opening win Saturday at Walkup Skydome in Flagstaff.

Trailing by five with two seconds left to play and the ball on Southern Utah’s 2-yard line, Lumberjacks senior QB Keondre Wudtee rolled to his left and found Coleman Owen for the go-ahead score to beat the Thunderbirds, 34-33.

The game-winning drive started inauspiciously on NAU’s own 19 yard line with 53 seconds remaining — and needed some help from SUU to get going.

After an incompletion on first down, SUU was called for two consecutive pass interference calls, giving away 25 yards in penalties.

Wudtee found George Robinson for 3 yards on the next play and quickly called timeout with 35 seconds left.

Then the Lumberjacks offense found some forward motion.

After an 8-yard completion to Hendrix Johnson and an incompletion, Wudtee found Matt Kempton twice in a row, first for 15 then for 20 yards, giving NAU first and goal at the SUU 10.

SUU was called for interference in the end zone on 2nd-and-goal, giving NAU the ball at the 2, setting up the winning play.

Wudtee finished 17 of 25 for 252 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. Owen caught four passes for 62 yards and a score, and Stacy Chukwumezie had four catches for 75 yards and a touchdown.

Southern Utah took a 28-27 lead on Justin Miller’s 3-yard TD pass to Landen Measom on the first play of the fourth quarter. The Thunderbirds used up 8:01 with 13 plays on their final drive that ended with Thomas Duckett running for no gain on a fourth-and-1.

NAU (1-0) next plays at 2 p.m. Saturday at Eastern Washington in Cheney, Wash. The game can be seen on the web at pluto.tv on Channel 1053.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.