San José State (3-0, 1-0 MWC) football continued its winning streak this Saturday on their home field, defeating the Kennesaw State Owls (0-3, 0-0 CUSA) with a final score of 31-10.
SJSU senior wide receiver Nick Nash was one of the biggest components to their win, setting a school record with 17 receptions.
“I think you always have to expect to play well,” Nash said. “Luckily my number was just being called a lot tonight, so I had the game that I did.”
The game started off a little slow for SJSU, with a fumble from Nash resulting in a turnover and a touchdown that was taken back.
SJSU’s sophomore quarterback Emmett Brown responded to an early KSU field goal with a pair of touchdown passes to Nash in the second quarter with 0:15 seconds left by the second successful pass.
A field goal from SJSU’s senior kicker Kyler Halvorsen in between the two touchdowns put the Spartans up another three points, making the score 17-3 by the end of the first half.
Brown and Nash, SJSU’s quarterback and wide receiver combo, connected three of SJSU’s total four touchdowns leading to its victory.
“Me and Nick became really good friends,” Brown said. “He’s a playmaker . . . when you’ve got a guy that you can put anywhere around, he’s gonna make a play.”
The Owls were able to barely scissor through the Spartans’ defense in the third quarter, scraping out a touchdown, bumping the score up to 17-10. However, this was short lived.
The Spartans quickly scored another touchdown thrown by Brown with a 35-yard reception thrown to senior wide receiver Justin Lockhart at 4:31 minutes left.
Brown’s passing throughout the game carried the Spartans to success, completing 26 out of 38 passes and contributing 355 total yards to the team throughout the game.
Now having nine touchdown passes for the season ranks him first in the Mountain West Conference for touchdown passes.
Nash was able to sneak in one last touchdown in the fourth quarter with 3:07 remaining, ending the game with a score of 31-10.
Nash explained that his own mistakes early on motivated him and got him into a rhythm to take advantage of the Owls’s mistakes on defense.
“Honestly, I hate to say it, but that early fumble, I think it made me mad obviously,” Nash said. “The early fumble and the touchdown that was taken back really got me going.”
SJSU football head coach, Ken Niumatalolo stated he knows he’s got work to do, but he’s glad about the resilience his team showed by executing plays better after their mistakes.
The third quarter was statistically the weakest for the Spartans in terms of possession time, as KSU held the ball for the majority of the quarter, according to Niumatalolo.
“Our kids responded and didn’t flinch after that and kept going,” Niumatalolo said.
He said he was grateful for the win, but his immediate reaction was how he could prepare the team for the next game against Washington State University.
“You don’t think about the win, as a coach. You think about your preparation,” Niumatalolo said. “We’ve got to play better next week if we want to have a chance to win against Washington State.”
SJSU’s record against Washington State is four wins to eight losses and one tie, their last faceoff being in 2018, according to the Washington State Cougars website.
“You stay up all hours of the night, just thinking, ‘When do we need to practice, what do we need to do better?’ ” Niumatalolo said.
Niumatalolo said although he’s looking for things to fix in his team’s play, he’s got a good feeling about the players he has for the upcoming season.
“We would have loved to have started out without turning the ball over and started out clean, but to our kids’ credit, they’re a resilient, gritty group that just kept fighting,” Niumatalolo said. “I feel really good about this team.”
The San José State Spartans are scheduled to play the Washington State University Cougars (3-0, 0-0 Pac-12), the number one team in the Pac-12, on Gesa Field in Pullman, Wash. on Sept. 20.
