FRESNO – Fresno State dominated its option to victory Saturday night, claiming the Valley Trophy with a 33-10 homecoming evening win over San Jose State.
Mikey Keene accomplished 17 of his first 18 passes on his option to going 30-for-41 for 275 yards and 4 touchdowns for the Bulldogs (5-3, 3-1 Mountain West Convention), who haven’t misplaced at dwelling to the Spartans since 2016.
In the meantime, San Jose State (5-3, 3-2 MWC) had three totally different quarterbacks throw an interception – with the Spartans instantly switching to a special quarterback after every of them.
“Our worst game the whole season and we’re disappointed it came against our rivals,” mentioned San Jose State coach Ken Niumatalolo. “We’re not in sync right now.”
Sophomore Jalen Moss was the first goal for the Bulldogs’ signal-caller, ending with six catches for 85 yards and two touchdowns.
At 11:14 within the second quarter, Moss made a catch by way of contact, spun, and ran to the tip zone to complete off a 43-yard landing to place the Bulldogs up 10-7, a lead they’d by no means lose.
Moss, although, was injured within the fourth quarter and didn’t return to the sport.
“They came out hot, had a game plan and stuck to it,” Spartans linebacker Jordan Cobbs mentioned. “The key, pivotal moments of the game, the crowd played a factor. Kudos to Fresno.”
San Jose State started to place a drive collectively within the third quarter earlier than Fresno’s Al’zillion Hamilton intercepted Emmett Brown’s cross and returned it 78 yards.
Walker Eget was the beginning quarterback for the Spartans and completed 14-for-31 for 202 yards, a landing and two interceptions.
“I thought we were prepared but obviously we weren’t,” Eget mentioned.
Eget, Brown and Xavier Ward all noticed snaps within the second half and every would threw an interception that bought them benched.
“We’re just trying to find a spark,” mentioned Niumatalolo of the quarterback shuffling. “(Offensively) there’s problems that we have to fix quickly.”
Fresno State’s Cam Lockridge took benefit of the Spartans turnovers to complete along with his third-career multi-interception recreation.
The Spartans’ lone landing got here on the opening drive the place Eget hit Nick Nash for his nation-leading twelfth landing of the season.
“We need to treat every drive like our first drive because the first drive, we looked like the better team,” mentioned Nash. “I think as an offensive unit we lost focus.”
San Jose State now has two convention losses and have but to play the 2 opponents on its scheduled which were nationally ranked this season – Boise State and UNLV.
Up subsequent
San Jose State could have a bye week earlier than they fly to Corvallis to tackle Oregon State (4-4) Nov. 9. A win on this matchup would clinch bowl-eligibility for the Spartans.
SJSU misplaced its solely different battle in opposition to a Pac-12 opponent when it fell 54-52 in double additional time to Washington State.
Initially Printed: October 26, 2024 at 9:20 p.m.
