San Jose State beats Stanford 34-31 behind Eget's 4 TD passes

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) San Jose State quarterback Walker Eget threw a career-high four touchdown passes, including an 18-yard score to TreyShun Murray with 1:55 minutes remaining, lifting the Spartans to a 34-31 win over Stanford on Friday.

Eget completed 33 of 49 pass attempts for 385 yards and was intercepted once. Nick Nash, who went into the day leading the FBS in receptions and touchdown catches, hauled in nine passes for 91 yards and two scores to break the San Jose State single-season record.

San Jose State (7-5) now awaits word on a possible bowl bid. The Spartans have played in the postseason in each of the last two seasons and three of the previous four.

“We’re a competitive place and people don’t know about San Jose, but we want to win,” Eget said. “The seventh (victory) helps our bowl chances but especially against Stanford we want to win.”

The Spartans had lost six straight to their Northern California rivals, who at one time played each other annually.

Friday’s game was the first time the two teams had met since 2013 and was San Jose State’s final home game of the season, allowing a handful of seniors to make their final appearance in CEFCU Stadium.

“We like to make things dramatic to get more viewership I guess,” Spartans coach Ken Niumatalolo said. “We had our ups and downs, our highs and lows, and our guys just continued to keep battling the whole game.”

Prior to Eget’s game-winning throw, Stanford’s fourth quarter was a nightmare.

Eget was sacked and fumbled near his own end zone, leading to a touchdown for the Cardinal. On his next drive the San Jose State quarterback was intercepted near the Stanford end zone, then the Spartans turned the ball over on downs.

“The biggest thing is just turning the page, especially with this team,” Eget said. “When stuff happens we just have to overcome adversity.”

Through it all, Eget tried to remain calm.

“It’s just who he is, it’s the nature of him,” Niumatalolo said. “The young man’s got a great disposition about him, a great demeanor and he’s a great teammate.”

Stanford quarterback Ashton Daniels passed for 252 yards and one touchdown but was intercepted three times.

The Cardinal (3-9) played from behind most of the day after numerous self-inflicted mistakes. Stanford had 10 penalties for 115 yards.

“I’m proud of how our guys played , we just came up a play short,” Stanford coach Troy Taylor said. “We did a lot of really good things. Just not quite enough to win the game.”

Daniels scored on a 1-yard keeper midway through the fourth quarter to give Stanford a 31-27 lead with 7 ½ minutes to play.

The Spartans came up short on their ensuing drive and turned the ball over at the Cardinal 11-yard line after Eget overthrew Nash in the end zone.

Despite being backed up near its own goal line, Stanford came out throwing and Daniels was intercepted by Isiah Revis with 2:39 remaining to set up the game-winning drive.

Nash had touchdown catches of 20 and 2 yards.

Both teams had long touchdowns negated by penalties.

Stanford: The Cardinal didn’t have any bowl games to play for and it looked like it for much of the day. The malaise extended to the coaching staff, which made several questionable play-calls after driving deep into the Spartans red zone in the first half. Credit Taylor’s team for pulling together and making a late surge, though it came up empty.

San Jose State: This was a good test for the Spartans as they await word whether they’ll be playing in a bowl game. Eget was magnificent all game, as was Nash.

Stanford: The Cardinal won’t play again until beginning next season at Hawaii in August.

San Jose State: The Spartans are bowl eligible and will have to wait to receive an invitation to one of the postseason games.

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