In a heated battle between Northern and Southern California state schools, San Diego State welcomed San Jose State on Saturday for an evenly matched duel.
The game had an aggressive, but sluggish start. Both teams looked to establish their run game, but found themselves turning the ball over a combined three times in the first half.
After a string of defensive stands by both sides, the Spartans punted it away to SDSU junior wide receiver Tim Vizzi, who fumbled the ball, providing the Aztecs with their first turnover since the first game of the season against Washington. The Spartans capitalized with a field goal to take the early lead.
On the first play of the second quarter, senior quarterback Ryan Katz mishandled an exchange to senior running back Walter Kazee, resulting in another Aztec turnover. Consequently, the Spartans retained possession and marched the ball into the red zone. But SJSU committed a turnover of its own as junior quarterback David Fales muffed a hand- off to his own running back.
The Aztecs continued to establish their ground game and proceeded to pound the rock with running backs Adam Muema and Kazee. In the second quarter, Muema found daylight and scampered down the field for a career-long 83-yard touchdown, putting the Aztecs in the lead. “The line held their blocks,” Muema said. “I made a man miss and scored. That’s what I need to do.”
The lead did not last long, though. The ensuing kickoff was returned for a 97-yard touchdown by SJSU sophomore running back Tyler Ervin as the Spartans regained the lead.
On SDSU’s fifth drive of the game, Katz showed his leadership qualities as he led the Aztecs down the field for a solid 11-play, 75-yard drive, capped off by an 8-yard touchdown run by Kazee. The teams entered the half all knotted up at 17 after senior placekicker Chance Marden drilled his first field goal of the year through the uprights.
The second half told a similar story, as both teams refused to break the tie until late in the third quarter when senior defensive back Leon McFadden swiped his second interception of the year, giving the Aztecs a chance to march down the field. The Aztecs capitalized on yet another Spartan turnover with a risky fourth-and-goal touchdown pass from Katz to junior tight end Gavin Escobar, giving SDSU a 24-17 lead going into the fourth quarter.
But the Spartans responded with a 21-yard touchdown pass from Fales to junior wide receiver Noel Grigsby, which tied up the score at 24.
The ensuing 13-play, 59-yard drive for the Aztecs resulted in yet another clutch Chance Marden field goal, this time from 41 yards out.
Down by a field goal, with five and a half minutes and only one timeout to work with, the SJSU offense orchestrated a touchdown drive down the field behind the arm of Fales for seven more points as the Spartans reclaimed the lead.
It didn’t take long for SDSU to regain the lead. Katz threaded the needle to junior wide receiver Colin Lockett for a 40-yard touchdown pass with less than three minutes to go in the game.
“I think the offense played really well,” Escobar said. “There are two times we have to convert on third and long and at the end of the game, we have to try to finish. Overall, we did play well.”
But the Spartans had the last laugh as Fales led the Spartans on yet another touchdown drive, finding junior wide receiver Chandler Jones over the middle for a 14-yard touchdown and leaving only 50 seconds for the Aztec offense to answer. But it was too late as SJSU stole the vic- tory, with a final score of 38-34.
“We’re back to the same prob- lem,” SDSU head coach Rocky Long said. “They made plays. If we blitzed them, we didn’t play good enough man coverage. If we didn’t blitz them, we didn’t get to the quarterback. In my opinion, the difference in the game is they were able to sack our quarterback with a four-man rush. We were unable to get to their quarterback with a four-man rush.”
Katz finished with 213 passing yards and two touchdowns, while Muema had a career day, finish- ing with 25 carries for 202 yards and one touchdown, including his 83-yard run. The Aztecs fall to 2-2 on the season and are back in action on Saturday when they travel north to take on Fresno State.
