San José, Calif. - Jumping out to a 26-0 advantage and never looking back, San José State earned its first conference victory of the season in all-around fine fashion on Friday night.
Consistent and impressive showings from all three phases helped get the job done as the Spartans (3-2, 1-1 Mountain West) eased past visiting New Mexico for the 32-21 victory.
"This was an awesome win for our football team," said head coach Brent Brennan after the win. "There were a lot of moments where it looked like we could either blow it open or they could climb back in. I thought our team did an outstanding job at rallying in those moments."
Senior signal-caller Josh Love rallied throughout the night, throwing for 405 yards and a pair of touchdowns to lead his team offensively. The effort marked Love's third career game with over 400 yards through the air and wideout Tre Walker was responsible for over a quarter of those, ending the game with seven receptions for 130 yards.
The other side of the ball shined as well on Friday, setting a season-high for takeaways with six turnovers on four interceptions and two fumble recoveries.
Rounding out the strong night across the board was kicker Matt Mercurio. The freshman tied a program-record with field goals of 24 yards (twice), 33 and 49 in the win.
It was freshman quarterback Nick Nash who drew first blood for SJSU, calling his own number on a 9-yard touchdown run to put his team ahead 6-0 midway through the opening stanza. The scoring scamper capped an explosive possession for the offense, going 80 yards in just six plays for the first of three touchdown drives in a 15-minute span.
Love earned his pair of touchdowns on those final two touchdown drives in wide-ranging fashion.
The senior found tight end Billy Humphreys on a short 5-yard pass to extend San José State's lead to 13-0 and then targeted senior Bailey Gaither on an 80-yard bomb to push the advantage to 20-0 with 8:42 remaining in the first half.
"Going in, we knew we could take shots deep, especially with our guys on the outside," Love said. "I thought we had a great week of practice and we just executed."
Mercurio would take over for the remainder of the second stanza, starting his big night in earnest by hitting from 24 and 33 yards to give his team a 26-7 advantage at the halftime break.
After forcing three turnovers in the first half, the defense ultimately stepped up in the final two quarters to seal the deal on Friday's victory. With the Lobos knocking on the door on their second drive of the second half, a fumble forced by sophomore linebacker Rico Tolefree stopped the momentum in its tracks with a red zone takeaway.
A short touchdown run from New Mexico quarterback Sherrion Jones did pull his team within 26-14 heading into the fourth quarter but Jones would go on to be picked off two more times in the contest's final 13 minutes. Sophomore cornerback Nehemiah Shelton rose up to snag his third interception of the season with just over 12 minutes remaining and it was Tolefree who capped his unit's four-interception evening with one of his own at the 3:49 mark.
The Spartans entered the day tied for fourth in the NCAA with seven interceptions.
— San José State Football (@SanJoseStateFB) October 5, 2019
Add four more to the total. #SpartanUp pic.twitter.com/cjr3rf3IpU
"That is a unicorn any time your defense has a six turnover game," said Brennan. "That's really special. Those kids work very hard at takeaways and being mindful of the ball so that was awesome to see."
It was Mercurio who put the icing on the cake late for the Spartans, drilling a career-long 49-yard field goal in addition to one from 24 yards out to seal the deal on the victory. SJSU would ultimately finish the night with a 464-399 advantage in total yards.
San José State will look to replicate that success a week from Saturday when it travels to Reno to face Nevada. Kickoff is set for 1:00 p.m. and the game will be televised by AT&T SportsNet.