San Jose, Calif. - Kyle Reed’s 17-yard touchdown throw to Kevin Jurovich with 0:08 left in the game gave San Jose State University a thrilling, come-from-behind, 13-10 victory over UC Davis in non-conference football as both teams opened the 2008 season at Spartan Stadium on Saturday, August 30.
In his collegiate debut, Reed entered the game on the second series of the third quarter and engineered the comeback from a 10-0 halftime deficit with a pair of scoring drives. He finished 14-of-18 passing for 132 yards and two touchdowns, while also compiling a team-high 28 rushing yards on seven carries.
Reed, a highly-touted Oakland prep quarterback who transferred from the University of California and is now a junior, opened the final drive with a nine-yard scamper to the SJSU 45. With under a minute remaining, Jurovich caught a four-yard pass to the 49. On the next play, Reed hit Jurovich in stride for 37 yards to the 14. An incompletion and pass for no gain left the Spartans with 37 seconds. A Steven Wulff sack of Reed made them have to hurry to get a fourth-down play off with the clock running and no timeouts, but Reed snuck his throw perfectly in between several defenders to Jurovich in the middle of the end zone with 0:08 still showing on the scoreboard clock. Jared Strubeck’s extra point made it 13-10.
On the final play of the game with three seconds left, Aggie quarterback Daniel Alfaro threw incomplete.
With the win, the Spartans move to 1-0, while UC Davis starts the season off at 0-1.
San Jose State’s first drive started off promisingly as Coye Francies, a senior transfer out of Oregon State, took the opening kick-off 37 yards to the San Jose State 44. On the Spartans’ first play from scrimmage, quarterback Myles Eden went around the right side, faked a pitch, and kept it for a seven-yard pick-up across midfield. Eden then hit David Richmond on a screen, with the senior wideout cutting across the field from right to left and winding up with a 33-yard gain to the UC Davis 16. The drive stalled from there, however, thanks in large part to a sack by Aggie senior defensive standout John Faletoese that cost the Spartans 11 yards, and ended with a missed field goal wide to the left by Strubeck.
UC Davis wasted little time in capitalizing, going 74 yards on just four plays and 1:35, with jAlfaro hitting Bakari Grant with a short dump-pass and the junior wide receiver sprinting straight up the middle of the field for a 54-yard touchdown. Sean Kelley’s point-after made it 7-0 at the 10:35 mark of the first quarter.
After the a San Jose State fumble that was recovered by Wulff, and a UC Davis punt, redshirt sophomore Jordan LaSecla entered the game at quarterback for the Spartans, and on his third pass attempt following a pair of completions, Wulff picked him off near the right sideline and took it 23 yards to the SJSU 18.
The Spartan defense was able to hold firm from there, with Kelley’s 20-yard field goal making it a 10-0 game with 47 ticks left in the opening period. Wulff added to a stellar first period for the junior UCD defensive end with a sack of Eden to force another punt.
The ensuing Aggie drive began with a six-yard Alfaro completion to Chris Carter as time finally ran out on the first period. On the very first play of the second quarter, Devin Newsome produced his first collegiate interception and returned it 17 yards to the Spartan 43-yard line. That possession would also fail to result in points, however.
UC Davis began the next series at its own 13, and converted on a couple of third-down plays, but San Jose State finally forced the visitors to punt as the five-minute mark approached.
The Spartans’ final possession of the half began at their own 44 with 2:10 left after a four-yard punt return by Jurovich. On the first play, Eden hit Jurovich for 18 yards down the right sideline to the Aggie 38. Two plays later, however, Mike Healey intercepted Eden at the 17.
A half that saw San Jose State turn the ball over three times ended with a 10-0 scoreline in favor of UC Davis.
On the first UC Davis series of the second half, Carl Ihenacho sacked Alfaro on a third-and-16 play and caused him to fumble, with Jeff Schweiger, a San Jose native and senior transfer from USC, finally pouncing on the loose ball to give the Spartans the ball at the Aggie 43.
Reed, like Francies and Schweiger a Pac-10 transfer, joined his two defensive teammates in making his Spartan debut on the ensuing Spartan possession. He scrambled for 10 yards on second and 15 after an incompletion and a false-start penalty, before hitting Jalal Beauchman for six yards and a first down to the Aggie 32. Later on third and 19, Reed ran to his left and found Beauchman again, and with some assistance from Jurovich, the junior wideout was narrowly able to get across the first-down marker at the UCD 21.
Aided shortly thereafter by a personal foul penalty on the Aggies, the Spartans got inside the UCD 10. Going for it on a fourth-and-goal play from the three, Reed found Terrance Williams on an inside slant to his left for San Jose State’s first points of the 2008 season. Strubeck’s extra-point attempt was blocked by Faletoese, leaving the score at 10-6 with 2:07 left in the third.
The scoring drive went for 12 plays, 43 yards and 6:23 off the clock for the Spartans, with Reed going six-of-seven passing for 46 yards and the touchdown, and rushing three times for six more yards.
Three catches by Grant for 24 yards and three rushes by Brandon Tucker for 20 yards helped move UC Davis to scoring position again on its next series, and on fourth and 12 from the 27, Alfaro was picked off by Christopher Owens at the 11 to give the Spartans the ball back. A 25-yard return and UCD penalty put the ball at the Aggie 49 for Reed and company. On third and eight, Reed was sacked by Patrick Michelier to force a punt with 8:29 remaining in the contest.
A critical six-yard Alfaro pass to Brandon Rice up the middle on third and five kept the Aggie drive, but Francies broke up a subsequent Alfaro effort on third and three. Jurovich fielded the Aggie punt at his own 31 with 5:11 showing on the stadium scoreboard. A 15-yard penalty for having 12 men on the field moved San Jose State to its 46, before Reed hit Jurovich on the right flank for six yards into UCD territory.
Reed then kept it and sprinted up the middle for 20 yards to the 28. On a third-and-nine play, Reed’s pass attempt went incomplete into the end zone, and Strubeck’s 43-yard kick went wide to the right with 3:30 left.
Schweiger’s tackle with Adonis Davis on third and four gave San Jose State its final opportunity with 1:23 on the clock and the ball at the SJSU 36.
On the night, Jurovich had 11 catches for 99 yards, while Richmond hauled in six passes for 60 yards and Beauchman four for 40. In his return to the field, Yonus Davis rushed for 26 yards on seven carries and caught three passes for 25 yards. Eden finished 10-of-13 for 86 yards.
Defensively, Ihenacho had a sack and two forced fumbles, finishing with a game-high nine total tackles. Francies added eight tackles of his own. Braden Storaasli got a hand to a Brett Dickinson punt for the block in the first quarter.
In his major college debut, junior punter Philip Zavala had five punts for 188 yards, including a 58-yard effort to the Aggie 17 late in the first half.
Alfaro was 21-of-34 for 193 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions for UC Davis. Grant wound up with eight catches for 108 yards and the touchdown. Joe Trombetta ran for 50 yards on 21 carries and made four receptions for 27 more yards.
San Jose State next travels to Lincoln, Neb., to take on the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Saturday, September 6. Kick-off is set for 11:30 a.m. local time, 9:30 a.m. Pacific.