Football

SDSU PULLS OFF DRAMATIC COMEBACK AGAINST WYOMING 26-22

KCR College Radio

San Diego State University improved to 5-1 after a stunning come from behind victory over the University of Wyoming 26-22 at SDCCU stadium.

Down three points late in the fourth quarter, SDSU quarterback Ryan Agnew avoided a sack and found tight end Daniel Bellinger for a touchdown that gave the Aztecs a 26-22 lead with just over two minutes remaining.

“Everyday at practice we go out and work as hard as we can,” Bellinger said, “When it comes down to that, we try to get open and that’s exactly what happened.”

The Aztecs defense stood tall and sealed the four point victory with an interception by cornerback Luq Barcoo. 

After a late hit out of bounds penalty was called on the Aztecs’ Dwyane Johnson Jr, the Cowboys took advantage of the mistake and scored a touchdown, which gave them a 22-19 lead after converting a two point conversion. 

“I didn’t agree with the call,” Rocky Long said, “I don’t think Dwyane did anything that would’ve caused a flag, but they threw it.”

Run plays and designed quarterback keepers nearly beat the Aztecs on Saturday night. Sean Chambers, the Cowboys quarterback had two rushing touchdowns and ran in a two-point conversion on 13 rushing attempts.

He had 14 passing attempts and only completed five of them, but threw for 94 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Wyoming tallied 39 rushing attempts and had three rushers combined for 157 yards.

“We missed two tackles that added up to over 100 yards rushing.” Long said, “So you miss tackles, you give up rushing yards. In the second half, we didn’t miss tackles.”

The Aztecs’ offense had a hard time scoring for the first half of the game, even trailing 14-3 at one point and continually settling for field goals. However, in the middle of the third quarter, the Aztecs seemed to establish their run game and rolled the dice twice on fourth down.

On a fourth-and-one, the Aztecs converted and set up a Juwaun Washington touchdown. Then, on a fourth-and-three late in the third, Agnew found Jesse Matthews for a first down, which set up a go-ahead touchdown run by Washington that gave the Aztecs a five-point lead.

“Anytime we have two teams with the same philosophy, you want to pound the rock and be physical.” Washington said, “It’s going to take some time to get going. We just have to keep doing what we’re doing.”

In the fourth quarter down by a score, the University of Wyoming had a chance to retake the lead, but the Cowboys fumbled the ball during a punt return and the Aztecs took over deep in Cowboys territory.

Kicker Matt Araiza had already made two field goals on Saturday, but missed a kick that would’ve pushed the lead to eight. His streak of seven straight made kicks was snapped, Arazia is now 9-for-12 on field goals this season.

The Aztecs will face San Jose State on the road next Saturday.

Written by: Daniel Farr
Photo by: Justin Neeley

Aztecs Come Up Short Against Utah State 23-17

KCR College Radio

San Diego State was defeated by Utah State 23-17 on Saturday night at SDCCU stadium. For the Aztecs, it was a classic case of too little, too late.

The Aztecs had multiple streaks snapped tonight. They had a 13 game winning streak in the month of September snapped as well as a 10 game winning streak against the Aggies snapped. 

The Aztecs only scored three points in the first half and trailed by 17 at halftime.

However, a late game spark brought the Aztecs within striking distance. After struggling for most of the game, senior quarterback Ryan Agnew threw two touchdowns in the fourth quarter and cut the Aggies’ lead to six with just over five minutes remaining. He would finish with 281 yards and two touchdowns. 

One of his fourth quarter touchdowns was an across-the-body throw to sophomore Kobe Smith for 25 yards.

Quarterback Ryan Agnew attempting a pass.
(Photo: Justin Neeley)

“That was a miracle at that point.” Agnew said, “[I] Dropped back and they played like a prevent defense so nothing was really open. I tried to buy enough time, try and find the open guy and Kobe [Smith] made a play.”

The Aggies had an opportunity at a 42-yard field goal with 1:18 left in the game, but kicker Dominik Eberle missed the kick, which kept the margin at six points instead of nine. 

On the Aztecs final drive of the game, the offense failed to find the endzone and turned the ball over on downs.

“We had a play drawn up to get one across the middle,” Agnew said, “Wish I stayed in there a little longer [the pocket] and tried to deliver the throw, got to give the receivers a chance.”

SDSU led this one early with a slim 3-0 lead, but a crucial first quarter interception put the Aztecs behind the eight ball. Agnew was picked off by Shaq Bond who returned it for a touchdown.

The turnover was not the only thing that hurt the Aztecs. The team had six penalties for 61 yards, including an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. SDSU eclipsed their average penalties and penalty yards in the first half.

SDSU running back Jordan Byrd.
(Photo: Justin Neeley)

“Obviously the special team’s penalties always started us in bad field position,” Rocky Long said, “I haven’t seen them on film to see if they were legit or not, but we’ll find out. I think the only real bad penalty was we got a personal foul penalty and that’s ridiculous.”

The Aggies have racked up 1,330 yards in their first two games but were held to 375 total yards against the Aztecs.

“If you told me before the game we were going to hold them to 16 points on defense I’d tell you we were going to win,” Long said.

However, Long quickly critiqued his defense after the praise. When asked about how his defense played, Long did not hold back.

“Not good enough,” Long said. “It’s never good enough if you lose. We gave up some yards, but we made them kick field goals and I think they scored one touchdown on offense.”

The Aztecs were without contribution from senior running back Juwan Washington, who hasn’t played since week 1. He continues to suit up, but remains on the sidelines during games.

Asked if anything good came out of tonight Long didn’t mince words.

“Well, there’s no real positives because we lost,” he said. “I still believe our team can be a good football team and maybe we were okay tonight too because Utah State is pretty good, they got an NFL quarterback and that’s a hard thing to contend with.”

The Aztecs will look to gather themselves over their upcoming bye week and prepare for an away game against Colorado State.

Written by: Daniel Farr

Breven’s Blog – SDSU Football Preview

Peter Swan
SDSU Football

The San Diego State football team is six weeks away from its first game of the 2019 college football season. 

Today we are going to take an early preview at the team and its schedule; Last year, the Aztecs were a team that had its sights on a great season until injuries and counteroffensives came. Despite these setbacks, the Aztecs were able to win seven games and get to their ninth consecutive bowl game. Now, they have gone to a spread offense, which means more passing, but the same philosophy of running the ball will continue. SDSU football head coach Rocky Long said the spread offense will help the offensive line find their blocking man faster. 

The Scarlet and Black have seniors at quarterback (Ryan Agnew), running back (Juwan Washington) and fullback (Isaac Lessard) returning. Washington, who was injured last year, looks to have senior season like Rashaad Penny and Donnell Pumphrey and rush for 2,000 yards. When he got hurt, he led the country in rushing yards. Behind him, at the running back position the Aztecs have a group including: junior Chase Jasmin, and sophomores Jordan Byrd and Chance Bell to get yards. On the offensive line, senior Daishawn Dixon leads the way with juniors Jacob Capra (transfer from Oregon) and Zachary Thomas. Senior Parker Houston looks to replicate what Kahale Warring has done in years past at the tight end position. Also on offense, they have junior Tim Wilson Jr. to lead the way, especially for an offense that is going to the spread. 

On defense, they are led by lineman Myles Cheatum and linebacker Kyahva Tezino, who decided to return for his senior and is on the Chuck Bednarik Award watch list for the best college defense player. In addition to Tezino, Long will have sophomore cornerback Darren Hall, who recorded 45 tackles in 2018 as a freshman. Also on defense, they have junior safety Tariq Thompson, who plays safety and was a freshman All-American by FWAA and USA Today back in 2017. 

The Scarlet and Black lose one of the best kickers in the country in John Baron II, but redshirt freshman Matt Araiza steps in looking to repeat what Baron has done as an Aztec. Punter Brandon Heicklen returns for his senior season and Juwan Washington continues as the kick returner.  

If you’re wondering when the Aztecs are going to play, we’ve got you covered. Here’s a schedule for the San Diego State Aztecs 2019 Football Season: 

Date Opponents (all times PT) Notes (if any) 
Aug. 31 Weber State 6 p.m.     
Sept. 7  @ UCLA 1:15 p.m.   SDSU has never beaten UCLA in program history. 
Sept. 14  @ New Mexico State 5 p.m.   
Sept. 21 Utah State 7:30 p.m. First MW Conference game 
Oct. 5 @ Colorado State Will be on an ESPN Network 
Oct. 12 Wyoming 7:30 p.m. Hall of Fame Weekend 
Oct. 19 @ UNLV 7:30 p.m.  
Nov. 9 Nevada Redout & Homecoming 
Nov. 15 (Fri.) Fresno State 6:30 p.m.  
Nov. 23 @ Hawaii   
Nov. 30  Brigham Young 6 p.m.  

Looking at the Aztecs’ 11 games, there is no reason why they can’t make another bowl appearance. We will have to see how the spread offense does against the defenses from the opponents they face.  

Written by: Breven Honda

Breven’s Sports Blog: An Introduction

KCR College Radio

Here on this sports blog, you will see articles from different sports at different levels throughout the summer. I have a wide range of sports knowledge from our sports here at SDSU to the pros.

Summer 2019 at San Diego State is in full swing. I hope all of you had a great Memorial Day weekend. There will be at least one blog per week that could discuss SDSU’s Men’s basketball team to even the San Diego Padres.

Some topics include NBA Free Agency: Who will leave the Golden State Warriors? In addition, I may analyze the NBA Awards and the rest of the playoffs. Will the Warriors be the first team since the Lakers to three-peat?

In addition to the playoffs and the awards, the NBA Draft has developed major storylines. Everyone knows about Duke’s Zion Williamson and Marquette’s Ja Morant, but there is also San Diego State’s Jalen McDaniels looking to hear his name be called in the draft.

Besides basketball, some Major League Baseball blogs might be seen here, especially with the San Diego Padres playing .500 baseball right now. In their 50th Anniversary since the first MLB Padres’ team was assembled in 1969 (hey, that’s when KCR began at SDSU), a lot has happened. You could also see some blogs on the Padres’ history as well.

July is filled with big things for baseball such as the 2019 All-Star Game in Cleveland, hosted by the Indians. At the end of month, it is the MLB Trade Deadline. Who will go and help that team make a playoff push into October? Which team will decide 2019 is the year to rebuild by trading some their biggest stars, similar to what the Baltimore Orioles did last year by trading Manny Machado and Jonathan Schoop?  

As the calendar turns to fall, our SDSU Football team will be getting ready for the 2019 season. They have some big opponents coming to SDSU, including the rivalry game against Fresno State here at SDCCU Stadium on national television.

Speaking of the stadium, Measure G was passed last November, which means SDSU will have a new home for Aztec football. Stay here for updates on the new stadium and what is next to come from SDSU Athletic Director, John David Wicker.

Last but not least, golf could make an appearance. Former Aztec and San Diego-product Xander Schauffele is playing on the PGA Tour and will compete in tournaments this summer.

All of that and more so stay tuned!

Written by: Breven Honda