Last weekend’s spate of college and professional football games offered fans a wild and crazy look at the sport. Both San Diego State University and the University of San Diego claimed non-conference victories on walk-off field goals on Saturday.
Also on Saturday, the Southwestern College Jaguars improved to 5-0 after claiming a 40-38 triple-overtime win at San Diego Mesa College at the community college level. Tied at 38 following the first overtime, the Jaguars missed a field goal attempt while Mesa threw an interception. In the third overtime tiebreaker, Southwestern converted on a two-point conversion attempt and then stopped the Olympians’ on their ensuing two-point try.
It was a dramatic ending that the Jags will certainly take in moving up to No. 16 in the nation.
Sunday’s nationally telecast NFL game between the Green Bay Packers and host Dallas Cowboys ended in similar whacky fashion with the Packers kicking a field goal with one second left on the clock (following an incompletion in the end zone) to salvage a 40-40 overtime tie after the Cowboys had taken a 40-37 lead on a field goal earlier in the OT period (after being stopped on the goal line).
Red and Black
San Diego State was playing its second road game of the season after recording a big 34-0 shutout win at home over Cal-Berkeley the week prior. The emphasis was on defense, not necessarily offense in Saturday’s game against the Huskies as Gabe Plascencia kicked a pair of field goals, the second as time expired to give the Aztecs a 6-3 victory.
“It was a great, gritty, tough team win going on the road, it’s hard, something good teams do,” Aztec head coach Sean Lewis said. “Obviously, tremendous effort by the defense. Stepped up time and time again in a really huge way. Because of the effort on that side of the ball, it really gave the whole organization a chance to win.
“Gabe did a tremendous job on all the kicks. I thought special teams did a good job in most areas of creating some momentum, flipping the field in a huge field position game like that, pinning them as far away from the goal line and scoring opportunities as possible.”
Plascencia, who entered the game with the second-longest streak in the country, is now 23-for-24 in career field goal tries. SDSU’s 3-1 start is its best start since 7-0 in 2021.
Northern Illinois (1-3) scored first on a 31-yard field goal by Andrew Glass in the first quarter. The Aztecs drew the equalizer with five seconds elapsed in the second quarter from 30 yards out.
From there, defense prevailed on both sides until the SoCa visitors managed to penetrate deep into Huskies territory in the dying seconds. Plascencia’s boot from 25 yards out proved to be the game-winner.
The final SDSU drive included seven plays for 49 yards consuming 1:44 off the clock.
The Aztecs managed 266 yards in total offense to Northern Illinois’ 179 total yards. SDSU’s Hunter Green punted six times for 282 yards while the Huskies’ Danny Vuckovic punted seven times for 298 yards. The Aztecs averaged 47.0 yards per punt while NIU averaged 42.6 yards per punt.
Jayden Denegal completed 13 of 20 passing attempts for 110 yards with two interceptions and one sack. The Huskies were limited to just 57 passing yards with one interception and two sacks.
As a team, the Aztecs rushed for 151 net yards. Lucky Sutton (Cathedral Catholic) keyed SDSU with 88 yards on 17 carries. Helix grad Christian Washington had 12 carries for 22 net yards.
Jordan Napier (73 all-purpose yards) accounted for 52 receiving yards on six catches. Napier had one catch measure 19 yards to go with a 16-yard burst on turf.
Owen Chambliss (team-leading 11 tackles) and Ryan Henderson each recorded 10-yard sacks while Chris Johnson (seven tackles) returned a pick four yards. Trey White (Eastlake) ranked third on the team with six tackles while fellow South County product Tano Letuli (Cathedral Catholic) had four defensive stops.
NIU logged five tackles for losses.
The Aztecs kick off Mountain West play Friday against the Colorado State Rams (1-3 overall) at Snapdragon Stadium, 7:30 p.m. start. It’s a chance to make inroads into the conference standings.
Fresno State (4-1 overall) and Boise State (3-1 overall) are both 1-0 in conference play.
“We’re tough, man, we’re tough,” Lewis said when asked what he’s learned about his team in its opening four games of the season. “We’re resilient, and we continue to mature week in and week out.”
Torero pride
USD, in winning its Pioneer Football League opener, rallied from 17-3 halftime deficit by out-scoring the St. Thomas Tommies 27-10 in second half, piling up 20 unanswered points.
Junior Dom Nankil (Mater Dei Catholic) helped lead the Toreros to a 3-2 overall start by passing for 265 yards and two touchdowns. A 41-yard scoring pass from Nankil to graduate student Josh Heverly late in the third quarter narrowed the score to 17-10.
The Tommies went up 27-10, before the USD comeback began in earnest. Senior Adam Criter scored on a 12-yard run and Nankil passed 54 yards to senior Cole Monach to trim the deficit to 27-24 with seven seconds left in the third quarter. A 56-yard heave from Nankil to Heverly set up Criter’s TD run.
Emiliano Salazar closed out the game with a pair of field goals for the Toreros — a 34-yarder with 1:52 remaining in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 27-all and the game-winner as time expired. USD’s game-winning drive included four plays for five yards after Nate Higgins recovered a fumble in the final minute near the St. Thomas goal line.
Graduate student Malachi Copper was credited with the punch-out after rejecting a St. Thomas field goal attempt earlier in the third quarter.
“We’re a team that when the chips are down, we fight, and fight, until the end, and that’s what they did today,” USD head coach Brandon Moore said.
For the season, Nankil has passed for 776 yards and five touchdowns while rushing or 105 net yards and two scores.
USD continues league play at Marist (0-1, 2-2) on Saturday, Oct. 4.
