San Diego State University's football team didn't score any offensive point at UNLV last week, but it has no problems putting the hurt on teams from the state of Utah.
Two weeks after clubbing BYU by 21, the Aztecs revved up their offense again and had their defense in the right places at the right times to stymie the Utah Utes 28-19 Saturday night in Rice-Eccles Stadium.
"It's quite an accomplishment," said coach Tom Craft. The Aztecs are 3-4 overall, 2-2 in the Mountain West. The Aztecs hadn't beaten both BYU and Utah in the same season since 1986.
They didn't even need preseason all-MWC running back Lynell Hamilton. Hamilton (hamstring, injured last week) was expected to play but didn't loosen up during the pre-game warm-ups and was held out. Brandon Bornes (78 yards) and quarterback Kevin O'Connell (88 yards and a touchdown rushing) made up for him.
"One thing this team definitely shows is character," O'Connell said about a club that lost to UCLA, Air Force and Ohio State to start the season.
O'Connell had a strong all-around game, breaking off a 61-yard run from scrimmage to set up a touchdown that gave the Aztecs a 21-3 lead and hitting 17 of his 23 passes for 219 yards and three touchdowns.
"We came in the locker room after that game last week, and everyone knew we were never going to let that happen again," he said.
After no offensive points last week, the Aztecs pounced on the first drive of the game when O'Connell threw a 60-yard scoring pass to Jeff Webb.
"That's something we looked at that we might be able to do," O'Connell said. "I didn't know it would come that early. It was a heckuva call by Coach on third-and-short. It kind of caught them off-guard."
"I kinda slowed up, kinda got yelled at, and luckily I came in with the six," said Webb, a senior.
SDSU let Utah have four offensive plays, then covered 45 yards in seven plays and sent O"Connell in for a 1-yard scoring run for a 14-0 lead midway through the first quarter.
The Aztec defense held the Utes on fourth-and-1 on that first drive and did it again late in the fourth quarter as well as making Ute running back Quinton Ganther fumble the ball away in the end zone on a third-and-goal play from the Aztec 1. Marcus Demps recovered for the touchback with 5:20 left in the game.
"That was the difference in the game," said Craft.
Utah piled up yardage (592 total yards) but couldn"t gain much from it. "The defense bent a little bit and kept things in front of them and didn't give up the big play, and when the field shortened, we got real competitive," Craft said.
E-mail: lham@desnews.com