San Jose State football: Spartans rout UNLV, take sole possession of first place in MWC West Division
San Jose State held its fourth opponent in five games to fewer than 20 points and limited UNLV to a season-low 213 total yards.
SAN JOSE — UNLV brought the highest-scoring offense in the Mountain West Conference to CEFCU Stadium on Friday night, and the San Jose State defense didn’t blink.
The Spartans forged a 33-0 lead midway through the third quarter and cruised to a 40-7 victory in front of 16,669 fans to secure sole ownership of first place in the MWC West Division.
UNLV, which was averaging 37.8 points and gave Cal all it could handle in a 20-14 loss at Berkeley, did virtually nothing against the Spartans until the outcome was well in hand.
The Spartans (4-1, 2-0) hit the road next Saturday to face long-time rival Fresno State (1-3, 0-0).
Quarterback Chevan Cordeiro, the reigning MWC Offensive Player of the Week, was in command all night, passing for 230 yards and two touchdowns and rushing for a season-best 109 yards and two more TDs.
But the co-headliner Friday night was the Spartans’ defense, which held its fourth opponent in five games to fewer than 20 points. SJSU limited UNLV to a season-low 213 total yards.
The Spartans’ 23-0 halftime lead inched higher when Taren Schive converted a 25-yard field goal on the first possession of the third quarter.
It got worse for the Rebels (4-2, 2-1 MW) when SJSU went 62 yards in just three plays on its next possession, including a 36-yard completion from Cordeiro to tight end Dominick Mazotti.
Cordeiro then threw a 22-yard TD pass to Mazotti for a 33-0 lead with 8:09 left in the third quarter. It was the Spartans’ largest lead in a game since a 35-0 margin against Hawaii on Nov. 21, 2015, a game SJSU won 42-23.
The Rebels ended SJSU’s bid for its first shutout in a conference game since 1988 when backup quarterback Cameron Friel threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Senika McKie with 2:52 left in the third period.
But SJSU countered with a seven-play 60-yard drive that included a 29-yard run by Cordeiro before a 20-yard TD strike to Elijah Cooks on his final snap of the game for a 40-7 lead with 9:28 left.
The Spartans outgained the Rebels 249 yards to 116 in the opening half and forged a 15-5 edge in first downs. SJSU converted 4-of-6 third-down chances while UNLV was 0-for-5 in those situations.
Cordeiro led a ground game that accumulated 148 rushing yards by scoring on dashes of 10 and 15 yards. He also had a 36-yard run among his 79 rushing yards in the half and was 11-for-17 passing for 101 yards.
Robinson scored the Spartans’ first TD on a 9-yard burst up the middle on a first-down play that capped a 12-play, 76-yard drive on their opening possession of the game. Robinson had 61 rushing yards by halftime.
SJSU assembled scoring drives of 76, 80 and 73 yards, the latter leading to Schive’s 43-yard field goal that capped the first-half scoring.
UNLV starting quarterback Doug Brumfield, who entered the game completing better than 70 percent of his passes, was 1-for-6 passing for 8 yards before being pulled early in the second quarter. The call went to Friel, a sophomore who was not even listed on the team’s two-deep chart.
Friel couldn’t handle a high, hard shotgun snap on his first play and defensive end Noah Lavulo recovered the loose ball for the Spartans at the Las Vegas 15-yard line. Cordeiro scored from there on a keeper on the next play for a 20-0 lead with 12:13 left in the half.