San Jose, Calif. - San Jose State University got a career-high four touchdown passes from quarterback Adam Tafralis and picked off Aggie quarterback Tim Plough four times in rolling to a 34-14 victory over UC Davis in its 2007 football home opener at Spartan Stadium on Saturday, September 29.
San Jose State, the last Football Bowl Subdivision team to make its home debut for 2007, improved to 2-3 with its second straight win overall and sixth straight in a home opener. UC Davis dropped to 2-3. It was the first meeting between the teams since a 0-0 tie in 1934, and the first time they faced off inside Spartan Stadium.
Tafralis completed 25-of-34 passes for 330 yards and the four touchdowns. Kevin Jurovich and David Richmond were menaces to the Aggie secondary all afternoon, Jurovich winding up with team highs of seven catches for 135 yards and two touchdowns. Richmond caught five balls, including one for a score, for 69 yards and drew a pair of pass interference penalties in the first half.
UC Davis took the opening kickoff and went 66 yards in 11 plays and 5:26, the drive culminating in a nine-yard touchdown pass from Plough to Kale Turner. Sean Creadick made an acrobatic catch over the middle to get the Aggies a first down at the 11-yard line.
The Spartans answered with an eight-play, 63-yard drive of their own that took up 3:48 off the clock, Tafralis finding Jurovich over the middle for 17 yards on a third-and-five for the junior wide receiver’s first touchdown reception of the season. Running back Jacob French had two carries for nine yards on the drive, while Tafralis was 3-for-3 passing for 37 yards, and added a five-yard run.
San Jose State forced the first punt of the afternoon the ensuing Aggie possession, with safety Duke Ihenacho getting a piece of Brett Dickinson’s kick and giving the Spartans the ball at the UCD 47. Tafralis wasted no time capitalizing, hitting a wide-open Richmond down the right side on the first play for the 47-yard strike and the first SJSU lead of the game, 14-7, at the 3:08 mark. It was Richmond’s third touchdown in two games.
After a missed field-goal opportunity by the Spartans, the Aggies took over in good field position at their own 44-yard line, but three plays later, All-American cornerback Dwight Lowery stepped in front of UCD wideout Bakari Grant and picked off Plough for his second interception of the season, returning it 12 yards to the UCD 48.
San Jose State was unable to parlay the game’s first turnover into points, and missed a final chance to extend their advantage beyond 14-7 heading into the intermission when Jared Strubeck went wide right on a 21-yard field goal attempt with 20 seconds left in the half. On that last drive, Tafralis and Terrance Williams hooked up for a 24-yard pass play to the UCD 18, and junior wideout Kyle Flynn, sprung by a key block by John Booker, went 10 yards on an end-around to the right on the next play to give the Spartans first-and-goal at the eight.
With just over 11 minutes left in the third quarter. Tafralis directed a six-play, 45-yard drive in 2:54, culminating in his third touchdown throw of the day, seven yards to Williams. Tafralis connected with French on throws of 31 yards down the left sideline on second-and-12 to the Aggie 16 and nine yards to the right on second-and-13 to the 10. Going for it on fourth-and-one, Tafralis faked the handoff, rolled to the right and found Williams all alone for his first major college touchdown reception at 8:03.
The Spartans got the ball right back and benefited from great starting position again thanks to an SJSU season-long punt return of 47 yards by Lowery to the Aggie 15, but the drive resulted in a missed Strubeck field goal from 32 yards.
Plough connected with wide receiver Brandon Rice for four first downs on the ensuing Aggie drive, with the final one coming on a fourth-and-two play to the SJSU 16-yard line, but cornerback Christopher Owens got his hands on his team-leading third interception of the year on the next play at the Spartan eight and returned it 26 yards to turn the UCD scoring threat away and keep the score at 21-7 heading into the fourth quarter.
On the first play of the final quarter, Tafralis hit Jurovich, who made several nice moves down the left sideline, tiptoed the final few yards and just snuck into the corner of the end zone for a 59-yard touchdown, the longest of the season for the Spartans and his second of the day. It gave Tafralis his first career game with four touchdown throws, and seven over his last two contests. Will Johnson’s point-after attempt was no good, leaving the score at 27-7.
Brandon Tucker took the kickoff 41 yards down the left sideline before being tackled by Strubeck at the SJSU 40. Plough eventually found Rice yet again on third-and-five for a 20-yard touchdown at 13:46 for the Aggies’ first points since the opening drive of the game.
Sophomore defensive end Carl Ihenacho, the older brother of Duke, and first-year safety David Marrero, helped keep the Aggies from getting any closer late in the game. Ihenacho provided the lone sack of Plough for a nine-yard loss on a third-and-four play. Marrero, a San Jose State graduate student who previously played at Stanford, grabbed his first interception as a Spartan.
Safety Jonathan Harris, the reigning WAC “Defensive Player of the Week,” sealed matters with his second interception in as many weeks, catching the ball in stride off the hands of Aggie receiver Conor Kirkpatrick and racing the remaining 35 yards down the right sideline with just under four minutes to go. Johnson’s first major college point made it a 34-14 final.
Matt Castelo contributed a game-high 15 tackles defensively while fellow linebacker Demetrius Jones added 12 for his fourth consecutive week reaching double-figures for tackles.
For UC Davis, Rice had a seven catches for 74 yards. Plough was 22-of-38 for 174 yards, two touchdowns and four interceptions before giving way to Matt Engle to finish the game. He had entered the game with three interceptions on the season. Freshman running back Joe Trombetta gained 76 yards on 21 carries while adding 40 yards on a game-high eight catches.
San Jose State continues a stretch of three straight home games over 13 days against WAC foe University of Idaho on Homecoming next Saturday, October 6. Kick-off at Spartan Stadium is set for 1:00 p.m.