SAN DIEGO – The old adage goes to “keep your gunpowder dry,” but all the offensive explosions came when it was raining as the San Diego State Aztecs corralled the Boise State Broncos 17-7 on Saturday night at Snapdragon Stadium.
All three of the game’s touchdowns came during a thick, misty shower during the second quarter, with Jayden Denegal scoring both for SDSU. The Aztecs (8-2, 5-1) took sole first place in the Mountain West, keeping the path open for the opportunity to host the conference championship game.
"It was a great win, sitting here at 8-2 (and) controlling our own destiny, to be able to take a next step and be able to do it again," said head coach Sean Lewis. "Take 24 hours, refocus, go make corrections and take another step to continue to elevate and to earn the right to go get some more work."
Lucky Sutton became the 27th 1,000-yard rusher in program history and fifth in the last decade, rushing for 150 yards on 25 carries, while Christian Washington added 98 yards on nine attempts.
"I'm really grateful and thankful for the offensive line, I wouldn't have gotten there without them and they've done an incredible job turning it around from last year," Sutton said. "It's also their achievement as well, so I'm really proud of that."
SDSU’s rushing game piled up 277 yards, while the defense allowed 268 total yards — 72 of which came on the final drive.
"We knew that they were going to have a really physical offensive line, that their backs were going to run—they have three really good backs—so we just had to make sure we were playing with really physical fundamentals and we were all on the same page with our run fits," said Owen Chambliss, who led the team with fellow linebacker Mister Williams by making eight tackles each.
Both offenses started dry over the first five possessions, all punts, then the much-predicted rain finally arrived with nearly three minutes left in the first quarter. It ended scoreless, but a bursting 41-yard run up the middle by Washington flashed like lightning before the coming offensive thunder.
The junior running back bolted free again on the first play of the second quarter, this time for 26 yards. He carried the ball all the way down to the one-yard-line, where Denegal burrowed home on third down from a yard out for the game’s opening touchdown.
"(Denegal) did a tremendous in some of our run checks and being able to manage that, a lot of things that don't show up in the stat sheet, but he gets us in the proper runs based off the fronts that we're seeing so we can have advantageous looks and lead to some of those explosive runs," Lewis said.
Boise State responded on the next drive, begun with a 20-yard rush from Gaines. That would be one of two plays of more than 10 yards as the Broncos strung together a 14-play drive, capped by a 9-yard touchdown run by Dylan Riley.
Aaron Brenner – The Sporting Tribune
San Diego State University quarterback Jayden Denegal (4) hands the ball to San Diego State University running back Lucky Sutton (7) during an NCAA football game against Boise State, Saturday November 15, 2025 in San Diego, California.
Sutton stepped to the forefront on the next Scarlet and Black drive, converting a key fourth-and-one at midfield in a T-formation by taking a run off the left side of the line 27 yards to the edge of the red zone.
"We always talk about T-formation as 'have to have it,' just in that moment I was like, 'they gave me the ball, I have to go get this,'" Sutton said. Lewis later called the conversion a "culture play."
The Aztecs got into a goal-to-go situation with 90 seconds before halftime when the Broncos took all three of their time outs. Then, on third down and eight yards from paydirt, Denegal faked a handoff and then took a delayed draw up the middle, diving into the end zone to put the Aztecs back in front.
After a scoreless third with SDSU leading 14-7, the clouds opened again for a brief shower between the final quarters, setting up Washington for a 14-yard run that converted a third-and-four. Byron Cardwell Jr. added a 10-yard rush on the drive, which ultimately stalled out at the Boise State 30-yard-line.
Gabe Plascencia split the sticks for his 17th make of the season that made him 10 of 11 from beyond 40 yards and gave the Aztecs their first two-possession lead of the game with 10:51 remaining.
A critical component was the Aztecs' poise down the stretch, while Gaines took a pair of penalties in the second half that proved massive.
First, he was called for an offensive facemask on the Broncos second drive of the third quarter when he grasped the grill and pulled down Dwayne McDougle on a stiff arm. The penalty killed the drive and set up the Plascencia field goal.
Then, on Boise State’s ensuing drive he was called for holding on a would’ve been fourth-and-two conversion just into SDSU territory, wiping out a 19-yard completion by redshirt sophomore Max Cutforth to Cameron Bates.
"In a game like that where there's a lot of emotion, our guys played with passion, they played with emotion but they did not get emotional," Lewis said.
SDSU took a season-low two penalties for 15 yards.
Boise State took all three of their timeouts to stall the Aztecs with 3:48 remaining and force a punt. Hunter Green, who averaged 45 yards per punt, leapt to catch the high snap and hit a bouncing 39-yard kick that backed the Broncos to their own 19-yard-line.
Though Cutforth passed for 72 of his 104 yards on the drive, kicker Colton Boomer missed a 41-yard field goal attempt wide left after SDSU took a timeout that sealed the deal. The 121 combined passing yards was 24 fewer than the previous fewest in Snapdragon Stadium history, which happened against Nevada on Oct. 21, 2023.
Elsewhere around the Mountain West, New Mexico held off Colorado State at home, UNLV rallied to knock off Utah State in double overtime and Fresno State won at home against Wyoming. It set up a five-way tie of teams at 4-2 in the conference.
SDSU closes out the home portion of their regular season schedule against San José State, who fell to 3-7 on the season with a 55-10 loss at Nevada earlier in the day. Kick off for Senior Day against the Spartans is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 22 at Snapdragon Stadium.
"The biggest thing is we need to be present (and) enjoy this special team. Too often we spend too much time thinking about the past or get too anxious worrying about the future and all the things that could happen," Lewis said.
"That's a a pretty special moment with a pretty special team, with guys who made a commitment long ago to do something special."
This story was updated at 12:07 a.m. on Nov. 16.