By Niles Hall (@n23hall) Spear Reporter | Senior quarterback Walker Eget celebrates with freshman running back Steve Chavez-Soto after his touchdown on Oct. 3 against the New Mexico Lobos. (Photo by Alexis Corona-Aguilar – The Spear)
The San Jose State Spartans defeated the New Mexico Lobos 35-28, opening up conference play with a bang.
Senior quarterback Walker Eget led the Spartans with a masterclass performance, throwing for 327 yards and three touchdowns. He did this while completing 87% of his passes.
“Walker played amazing.. He was a machine, I mean, all of his decisions were right,” head coach Ken Niumatalolo said.
The Spartans run game came to play Saturday night despite being without lead backs senior Floyd Chalk and junior Jabari Bates.
On short notice, freshman running back Steve Chavez-Soto had an excellent debut as a Spartan, rushing for two touchdowns on 71 rushing yards.
“That dude he runs so hard it’s crazy to think that he was on scout team last week to do what he just did this game, it’s really impressive,” Eget said.
The Spartans defense came up huge, having three interceptions, the first interceptions of the season.
Senior cornerback Jalen Bainer stepped up, having two interceptions down the stretch of the second half, which helped in limiting the Lobos’ comeback effort.
SJSU’s defense had a strong start to the first half after junior safety Larry Turner-Gooden picked off junior quarterback Jack Layne on an attempted trick play.
New Mexico’s defense started the game daring the Spartans to run, respecting SJSU’s electric pass game with a three-high safety look.
The Lobos eventually were forced to abandon their three-high safety look due to the Spartans’ success on the ground, opening the door for Eget to hit sophomore Danny Scudero on a 70-yard deep shot touchdown.
Scudero had his fourth 100+ receiving yard game of the season, having seven receptions for 151 yards and a touchdown.
“He’s consistent…Danny is a guy who’s fast, and it’s hard to catch him. He’s gotta keep doing his thing cause he has a bright future ahead of him, “ Eget said.
Junior wide receivers Leland Smith and Kyri Shoels had respectable games of their own. Shoels had seven catches for 81 yards and Smith had 61 yards on six catches with a one-handed touchdown grab.
Junior wide receiver Matthew Coleman made his presence known after starting the season with an injury, making a diving effort touchdown on a tipped ball sequence that could have been intercepted.
SJSU’s pass protection was the unsung hero of this matchup, holding a Lobos front that was earning almost three sacks a game to zero.
It wasn’t all roses and rainbows for SJSU’s defense however, as they gave up 420 yards of offense.
Layne had 344 passing yards, on a 70% completion percentage, to drive the Lobos offense down the field on multiple occasions.
Senior Keagan Johnson carved up SJSU’s secondary, having 11 receptions for 145 yards.
Despite having three interceptions, the Spartan’s secondary continued to allow untimely chunk plays.
The defense bottled up the Lobos daunting running back trio of junior Scottre Humprey, senior Damon Bankstone and sophomore D.J. McKinney, holding the three to just 72 rushing yards combined.
SJSU will look to continue its strong conference play performance, going on the road to face Wyoming at 4 p.m. next Saturday at War Memorial Stadium.
