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The Honolulu Advertiser

Updated at 1:56 p.m., Saturday, October 6, 2007

UH's next foe, San Jose State, beats Idaho, 28-20

Associated Press

SAN JOSE, Calif — Adam Tafralis threw a pair of touchdown passes and James T. Callier rushed for two touchdowns as San Jose State won its third straight, a 28-20 victory over Idaho today.

(San Jose hosts No. 16 Hawai'i on Friday. UH beat Idaho, 48-20, last Saturday.)

Kevin Jurovich caught 10 passes for 161 yards to become the first Spartans receiver with back-to-back games of 100 receiving yards or more in five years.

Callier helped San Jose State (3-3, 2-0 in the WAC) re-establish its running game, going for 93 yards on 31 carries as the Spartans recorded their first 100-yard rushing game of the year. Tafralis finished with 302 yards on 22-of-30 passing.

WAC rushing leader Deonte Jackson, slowed by a sprained ankle, gained 94 yards on 22 carries for Idaho (1-5, 0-2 WAC), which lost its fourth straight. Bryan Flowers added 86 yards on 10 carries.

Vandals' redshirt senior Brian Nooy, making his first career start in the wake of a hand injury to Nathan Enderle last week, threw for 68 yards on 8-of-15 passing.

Idaho piled up 141 of its 251 yards in the first quarter alone, and held onto the ball for nearly 10 minutes. Tino Amancio's 34-yard field goal with 4:31 left in the period, though, was all the Vandals had to show for it.

San Jose State scored two minutes later and never trailed again.

Amancio connected on a 27-yard attempt early in the second quarter to bring Idaho within 7-6, but the Spartans put together two 80-yard scoring drives in the final 5:13 of the first half and took a 21-6 lead into the intermission.

The Spartans failed to convert on a fourth down pass play in Idaho territory, which ended their first drive.

San Jose State's David Marrero, a running back at Stanford two years ago, returned a kickoff 21 yards to the Spartans' 39-yard line and Tafralis found David Richmond to complete a 48-yard pass that led to San Jose State's first rushing touchdown of the season — a two-yard run by Callier. He also ran in from one-yard out with 5:13 left in the second quarter.

Tafralis found a wide open Jurovich for a 33-yard touchdown with 33 seconds left in the first half.

The Spartans tacked on another touchdown early in the fourth quarter on Tafralis' 13-yard pass to Jeff Clark to make it 28-6.

That's when the ball began bouncing into the Vandals' hands. Maurice Shaw recovered a blocked punt in the end zone to bring Idaho within 28-13 with just under 10 minutes to play. Joseph Dickson rushed in untouched to get his hands on the ball.

Eric Hunter picked off a Tafralis pass seconds later, setting up a 19-yard run by Flowers, Jr.

The Vandals got the ball back with just over two minutes left but Jonathan Harris intercepted a Nooy pass to secure it.

Idaho lost its fifth straight on the road, and fifth of six overall to the Spartans.