Cooper cleaves Lions for 223 yards as SDSU’s offense explodes late in opener

SAN DIEGO — It’s said that once one learns to drive manual transmission, the ride is smoother and more precise.

After a first half of stutters and stalls, San Diego State kicked into gear and poured in 42 points in the final 30 minutes to defeat the Texas A&M-Commerce Lions, 45-14 on Saturday night at Snapdragon Stadium.

“I’m really proud of the resiliency of the club, the character of the club and the way they responded in the second half,” said Aztecs head coach Sean Lewis.

Marquez Cooper performed like his luxury car pedigree, piling up 223 yards on 27 carries with two touchdowns as he became the first Aztec since Rashaad Penny in 2017 to top 200 yards rushing in a game. He had the second-most yards in a Scarlet and Black debut — only Marshall Faulk had more — and surpassed the 4,000-yard mark for his career.

“Just being at San Diego State feels amazing with guys that were able to set the tone before me and guys to chase their greatness behind them,” Cooper said. 

The SDSU (1-0) defense held TAMC (0-1) to a Snapdragon Stadium record 180 yards of total offense and forced three turnovers. Tano Letuli took a 27-yard fumble recovery for touchdown and JD Coffey III returned an interception 45 yards for a score.

Trailing 6-3 at the half, the Aztecs exploded for 21 points in both the third and fourth quarters.

“(We had to) stay within our rules, stay with what we’ve been doing and just work as a team fixing things up and come out with energy,” Letuli said. “Stay calm and trust the defense, trust our team, trust the offense and it worked out.”

The first touchdown came on a 47-yard run off tackle to left by Cooper on the sixth play of the first SDSU drive of the half. 48 seconds later Trey White stripped the ball from Lions quarterback Eric Rodriguez on a rush attempt, which bounded free and was recovered and taken in for the score by Letuli.

On the next Aztecs possession O’Neil connected with Louis Brown IV for a 44-yard touchdown pass after missing long on a pair of deep shots in the first half.

The Lions followed up with an eight play, 65 yard drive that was capped by an 8-yard touchdown pass from Rodriguez to Drew Allison. One play before the touchdown Dalesean Staley had an interception in the end zone, but it was nullified by a personal foul roughing the passer penalty.

San Diego State finished the game with 16 penalties for 149 yards and gave Texas A&M-Commerce seven of the 17 first downs on infractions.

“It’s an emotional game that needs to be played with emotion, but you can’t play it emotionally,” Lewis said. “Things that happen pre or post snap, the things that we talk about as our controllables that we need to do a much better job controlling so that the Aztecs don’t beat the Aztecs.”

Cooper opened up the fourth quarter with his second rushing score of the night, bulling through the middle for a 7-yard touchdown. 53 seconds later Coffey III snatched a deep desperation heave under pressure by Rodriguez and returned it for his first career college touchdown.

Jordan Napier finished the scoring by taking an 8-yard underneath route to the right to the pylon for his first career receiving touchdown.

O’Neil finished the game 22 of 33 for 214 yards with two touchdowns and carried five times for 18 yards. He spread the ball to seven different receivers, with Ja’Shaun poke catching a game-high six passes for 30 yards. Brown IV had a game-best 91 yards receiving.

“He settled into the game where obviously it’s his first start and with all of it, the juices are flowing for everyone… so everyone needed to settle in,” Lewis said.

After a pair of nothing-doing drives on their first two possessions, the Aztecs drove to the TAMC 31-yard line after converting a pair of fourth downs before an incompletion on third down.

Gabriel Plascencia knocked through a 50-yard field goal from the right hash to give the Scarlet and Black the lead with 32 seconds remaining in the first quarter. It tied the Snapdragon Stadium record for longest field goal, originally set by Jack Browning against Toledo on Sept. 24, 2022.

“I think today was a wake up call,” Cooper said.

“I don't think we came sleeping on them, but it felt like it. So we need to work harder in practice every single day and we need to get in that film room tomorrow to see what we need to fix.”

Up next the Aztecs will face the Oregon State Beavers, who opened the season with a 38-15 home win over Idaho State, at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 7 at Snapdragon Stadium.

“Hey, it was ugly in the first half,” Lewis said. “But if our response can be that to adverse situations, we're gonna have a chance as we go forward with everything that we do.”