Sports

By AdAm CorreA

STAFF WRITER

The San Diego State Aztecs (9-1-0, 5-10 Mountain West Conference) overcame adversity, coming back to defeat the Nevada Wolf Pack (7-3-0, 4-2-0 MWC) 23-21 Saturday night.

The game started with an SDSU threeand-out. The Wolf Pack went nine plays for 34 yards but were kept out of the end zone on the ensuing drive.

SDSU’s second possession started on their one yard line.

The Aztecs were in the midst of an 11-play drive, which included a 50-yard run from senior running back Greg Bell, and found themselves in a 3rd andgoal situation. Senior quarterback Lucas Johnson’s pass to senior wide receiver Elijah Kothe was just out of reach and the team settled for a field goal attempt.

As the field goal unit set up and snapped the ball, the kick was blocked by Nevada. However, a holding call on the Wolf Pack gave the ball back to SDSU.

The following play, Johnson threw a two-yard pass to a wide open senior tight end Daniel Bellinger for a touchdown. Junior kicker/punter Matt Araiza kicked the extra point to make it 7-0.

The Wolf Pack looked to answer back. Nevada junior quarterback Carson Strong completed five passes to put the ball on the SDSU 37-yard line.

Strong threw a 28-yard touchdown pass on the following play to sophomore wide receiver Tory Horton which tied the score at 7-7 after the extra point.

The Aztecs then started on their own 34-yard line and got up the field with a combination of Johnson’s passes and Greg Bell’s rushes.

On third-andone, Greg Bell couldn’t get the first down. The Aztecs called on Araiza, and he delivered. The 48-yard field goal gave the Aztecs a 10-7 lead.

SDSU kicked off to Nevada, and forced them to punt in the ensuing drive. The Aztecs went on to drive all the way to Nevada’s five-yard line. Senior running back Chance Bell took his fourth rush of the drive into the endzone for a touchdown, putting SDSU up 17-7.

Two Nevada drives later, the Wolf Pack

Photo by Andrew Finley SDSU’s defense had a lot to celebrate after keeping NFL prospect Carson Strong and the highest scoring team in the Mounatin West Conference to just 21 points in a pivital game in Carson.

started on their own 20-yard line and played hurry up football down the field.

Strong completed seven passes en route to SDSU’s five-yard line. His eighth pass of the drive went to senior wide receiver Romeo Doubs for a touchdown, cutting the deficit to 17-14.

The Aztecs were looking to take a bigger lead two drives later when they started on the Nevada 37-yard line.

Senior running back Kaegun Williams carried the ball four times for 14 yards to set Araiza’s 39-yard field goal, giving the Aztecs a 20-14 lead.

On the ensuing drive for Nevada, Strong completed a 54-yard play action touchdown pass to Doubs which gave the Wolf Pack their first lead of the game making it 21-20 with 9:57 left in the fourth quarter.

Head coach Brady Hoke said the team has learned from experience with close games and was not going to let up.

“I really do think the Utah game and the San Jose game, those games where we’ve been through some overtimes and had to be resilient and had to count on each other, we’ve learned from that,” Hoke said.

After five minutes were chewed off the clock, Johnson completed two long passes to Kothe and junior wide receiver TJ Sullivan to get SDSU in Nevada territory.

Hoke said Johnson looked comfortable in the pocket and it was his best performance of the season.

“It looked like he (Johnson) didn’t struggle with anything within the offense,” Hoke said. “When he had to do another read he did a really nice job there. I think overall, he was pretty decisive more so than he had been.”

On a third down play from the Nevada 17-yard line, Johnson passed to junior wide receiver Tyrell Shavers but the Wolf Pack defense broke it up, forcing a fourth down.

Johnson said on the last drive they had to stay collected as a group and have a winning drive mindset.

“We just knew that we had to get the ball into field goal range for Matt (Araiza). He’s a huge weapon for our team,” Johnson said. “We knew we just had to get it almost probably to the 40 and it would be good.”

Araiza came out for a 35-yard field goal try and — despite the loud Nevada fans that came out to the stadium — put it right through the posts to give SDSU a 23-21 lead with 1:21 left.

Nevada had their last chance of the game on their own 25 yard line.

Even with Strong getting his team to midfield, the Aztec defense pressured and denied Strong to force three incompletions which put down the Wolf Pack.

Junior defensive end Cameron Thomas was impressed with how the defense held Nevada to only 21 points.

“We knew we had to fight the quarterback and I think the defense that I saw coming together didn’t back down,” Thomas said.

SDSU moves up to first place in the west conference and will be playing at UNLV (2-8-0, 2-4-0 MWC) on Friday, Nov. 19.

Bruins show no remorse to Aztecs on senior night

By dAvis rAmAge

STAFF WRITER

San Diego State men’s soccer had their senior night spoiled by the No. 22 UCLA Bruins (10-6-1, 5-4-1 Pac-12) as the Aztecs (8-7-2, 2-7-0 Pac-12 Conference) made crucial mistakes that led to their eventual demise.

UCLA was the aggressor early on as it took only 30 seconds for the Bruins to capture the lead. Sophomore defender Tommy Silva niftily finished the cross from redshirt freshman forward Jose Contell, shocking the Aztecs fans and giving the Bruins a 1-0 lead.

The Aztecs earned their first corner of the night in the ninth minute, but it ended up hurting them as the ball found its way to senior midfielder Arturo Chavez, who was alone near the halfway line. UCLA redshirt freshman midfielder Tucker Lepley applied the defensive pressure on Chavez and took the ball right from his feet. Lepley ended up finding Silva for his second goal of the day on the fastbreak opportunity created by the mental mistake from Chavez.

SDSU head coach Ryan Hopkins said these mental mistakes are “the sign of a

Photo by Tania Gallardo Avalos San Diego State’s mens soccer team ended their season on a sour note after falling to conference opponent UCLA on the SDSU Sports Deck.

young team and those are things that we can certainly train better.”

The first promising opportunity for the Aztecs came from junior midfielder Blake Bowen who created space and curled a shot towards the bottom right corner, but Bruins freshman goalkeeper Nate Crockford made a fantastic diving save. The shot from Bowen led to a corner for the Aztecs, but it would not be converted.

The Aztecs had an astonishing 15 corners on the night — 12 in the first half — and outshot the Bruins 13-8.

“I was really happy with the chance creation,” Hopkins said, on generating opportunities. He also gave credit to the Bruins keeper. “I think the goalkeeper played really, really well.”

The onslaught of corner kicks finally paid off for the Aztecs in the 44th minute when freshman forward Alex Hjaelmof whipped a beautiful ball into the box that found the head of junior forward Austin Wehner. This goal was a huge momentum shift for the Aztecs going into halftime.

“I thought we were going to go on and win the game,” Hopkins said when commenting on how important this goal was for the team.

After an eventful first half, UCLA would eliminate any hopes the Aztecs had during the second half. The Aztecs once again felt the pressure of the Bruin defense in the 51st minute when Aztec sophomore goalkeeper Jacob Castro held the ball a little too long in his own box and was dispossessed by Silva.

Silva brilliantly distributed the ball to Contell who barely got the ball over the goal line as freshman defender Tadfej Pirtovsek tried to clear the ball off the line, but was unsuccessful.

Lepley put the dagger in the Aztecs in the 72nd minute with a spectacular left-footed shot curling away from the outstretched Castro diving to his right and into the back of the net.

Though they fought hard to get the dub, SDSU ultimately fell short and ended what was once an extremely hopeful season on a sour note.

Basketball takes first loss of the season in Provo against rivals BYU

By morgAn PriCkett

STAFF WRITER

There isn’t much that hasn’t been said about the rivalry between San Diego State and Bringham Young University.

Both teams have discontinued their football matchups with one another until at least 2034, partly due to the fact that BYU will join the Big-12 in 2023. So, the universities’ basketball teams will hope to keep the rivalry alive.

Friday’s narrow 66-60 defeat to the Cougars marked the fourth straight year the two schools have competed with the plan to continue in the next two years.

The last three matchups between the schools have resulted in two wins for the Aztecs, winning in 2018 (in San Diego 9081) and 2019 (in Provo 76-71), while the Cougars won last season’s matchup 62-72 in an empty Viejas Arena.

Despite recent success, the Aztecs still trail BYU 25-50 in the all-time series record. When playing in Provo, the Aztecs have had even less success with a 4-30 record.

Throughout the entire first half of Friday’s game, the Aztecs were abysmal from deep. In the season opener versus UC Riverside, the Aztecs shot 2-of-11 from three. Somehow they managed to replicate that shooting as the Aztecs again went 2-of-11 in only the first half. The Aztecs also dropped points at the free-throw line, shooting 42.9 percent from the strike.

“We have to shoot the ball better, we all know that,” Aztecs head coach Brian Dutcher said to the media after the game.

Even with the off shooting, the Aztecs kept the entire first half close with their defense and rebounding. The Aztecs led the Cougars in rebounds 20-18 and also managed to grab three more offensive boards. The Aztecs also led the Cougars in steals with three as opposed to BYU’s one.

SDSU had the chance to take a 28-26 lead into the half but senior guards Alex Barcello and Te’jon Lucas hit back-to-back threes to put the Cougars up 28-32. Aztec senior guard Trey Pulliam was able to half the deficit with a two-pointer before the break to a 30-32 lead for the Cougars.

The second half saw little change for the Aztecs as they continued to shoot poorly from three, shooting 1-11 in the second half from the line. But yet again their defense kept them in it with three steals to the Cougars zero.

“I thought we competed hard enough to keep ourselves in the game and give ourselves a chance to win,” Dutcher said. “We have to execute better at times but I liked our grit. I liked our fight. I liked the way we got on the ball after loose balls.”

For most of the second half, it was hard to determine the winner as both teams went back and forth taking the lead.

It wasn’t until 40 seconds left on the clock, when Barcello dribbled into a jumper on the left elbow, that the game truly looked out of reach. Barcello’s jumper gave the Cougars a 61-56 lead which would ultimately put the Aztecs to bed.

“The keys of the game were trying to contain Barcello, he made the big basket at the end, and to keep Loehner off the

Senior guard Trey Pullium pulls up to take a shot from the three-point line agaisnt UC Riverside.

Photo by Noelani Sapla

glass, and he got the big tip-in at the end,” Dutcher said. “We worked hard all game to prevent those things but in the end, those are the two players that made the plays that kind of sealed the victory for them.

The Aztecs tried to claw back before the final buzzer but it wasn’t enough as they fell to the Cougars 66-60.

The shooting woes of the Aztecs proved to be their fatal flaw. Dutcher emphasized the impact of Barcello’s shot-making on the result of the game but still has faith that his team can find a way out of their shooting slump sometime soon.

“Obviously Barcelo made three of the four threes they had, he’s an elite player. It would’ve been nice to see one of those go in for us when we needed it but our kids work hard and I think that is something that will improve as the year goes on,” Dutcher said.

The Aztecs are back in action at the Viejas Arena on Thursday, Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. to take on Arizona State.