Glenn Connelly, Photo Editor

Two suspect defenses entered Qualcomm Stadium on Saturday afternoon to do battle and neither unit stepped up its game.

San Diego State football team’s defenders gave up too many yards and first downs. Portland State’s safeties and cornerbacks committed too many errors and consistently fell behind their counterparts.

But when push came to shove, in front of more than 50,000 fans and in the shadow of a possible 0-3 record for the second consecutive year, SDSU kept itself off of the floor and forced PSU on it.

And the Aztecs didn’t just keep the Vikings grounded. They put them into the ground. Then buried them a little bit.

Starving for its first win of the 2007 season, SDSU used a high-powered aerial attack to smash an over-matched PSU team 52-17 and reinvigorate its season.

Senior quarterback Kevin O’Connell picked apart the Football Championship Subdivision (formally Division I-AA) team’s secondary, completing 19 of 31 passes. He threw for 443 yards and five touchdowns, both career highs.

“I’ve still got a couple of plays in my mind where I think we could have maybe gotten more, on my part at least,” said O’Connell, as if he was trying to atone for the past two weeks. “But you have to give it up to the offensive line. They absolutely dominated the line of scrimmage.”

“Dominated” might be an understatement. The Aztecs didn’t allow a single sack and gave O’Connell more than enough time to find wide open targets.

In one play, 10 minutes before halftime, O’Connell had a full 10 seconds of peace before eventually rolling out and finding senior wide receiver Brett Swain downfield – sans a defensive back for about 20 yards – for a 75-yard score.

“I just went into scramble mode and I (saw) a little flash of black about 60 yards down the field,” O’Connell said. “I probably could have gotten him a better ball so he could have skipped in there, but he was wide open. They forgot about him, and opportunities like that you can’t miss.”

Swain, who had a spectacular day, was as thankful for the protection O’Connell received as the quarterback was. Swain caught six passes to set career-highs of 224 yards and three touchdowns.

Not surprisingly, considering the ludicrous stat lines, the game was a shootout before the first two periods came to a close. The teams combined for touchdowns on six of the first seven drives. O’Connell finished the half with 275 passing yards and Vikings senior quarterback Brian White had 283 yards of his own.

The second half, however, was more one-sided. The SDSU offense continued to air it out, but defensive adjustments on the Aztecs side forced the Vikings (1-3) into multiple turnovers. SDSU (1-2) intercepted three White attempts in the second half and also recovered a fumble.

The biggest blow to PSU’s hopes came on the team’s first possession of the third quarter. The Vikings were driving downfield and threatening to eke back into the game when junior linebacker Russell Allen picked off a pass at the Aztec 13-yard line. PSU never got back into scoring position.

“That was definitely a big play,” Allen said. “That’s the biggest emphasis on our defense, forcing takeaways. That’s something we talk about and it came at the right time.”

The win came at a good time too.

SDSU was blown out in its first two games and those memories are firmly ingrained in the team’s mind.

“We were frustrated,” head coach Chuck Long said. “We felt we had good moments those first two games. Tonight we felt like we put it all together, especially on offense.”