COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. \u2014 A late San Jose State turnover paved the way for D.J. Johnson’s fourth-quarter surge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Johnson ran for 103 yards and three touchdowns, all in the final quarter, as Air Force pulled away to beat San Jose State 37-16 on Saturday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Quarterback Nate Romine added 116 yards rushing, running for a score and setting up another before leaving late in the game with a leg injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tyler Ervin ran for 121 yards and a touchdown and also caught a 17-yard scoring pass from Kenny Potter for San Jose State (1-1, 0-1 Mountain West).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Spartans were trailing 17-16 when Potter threw behind Tim Crawley and the ball skipped off his hands into the arms of Kalon Baker, who made his first career interception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“That was a huge play, a gigantic play,” Air Force coach Troy Calhoun said. “The field position that was involved and how quickly we could capitalize on it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Air Force (2-0, 1-0) took over at the San Jose State 34 and handed the ball to Johnson four-straight times, including a 13-yard touchdown run that put the Falcons up for good with 12:29 left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Romine broke loose for a 45 yard run on a subsequent series and, following a pass interference penalty that gave the Falcons a fresh set of downs inside the Spartans’ 5, took a shot to his right knee on a third-down scramble to the 1. He was helped off the field and replaced by Karson Roberts before Johnson hurdled into the end zone with 7:00 remaining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Johnson closed out the scoring with a 34-yard TD run with 3:43 left to play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I thought we didn’t answer the call for playing on the road for the first time,” San Jose State coach Ron Caragher said. “That’s a challenge for our guys and we didn’t answer the call.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
San Jose State was also hurt by the loss of their defensive captain, linebacker Christian Tago, who left with a head injury after taking a helmet to helmet hit on a block by wide receiver Tyler Williams early in the fourth quarter. Williams was flagged for “targeting” and ejected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It took out our leader. It took out our captain, and so it was tough for us and painful to see that happen,” Caragher said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Spartans pulled to within a point when Ervin broke through traffic at the line of scrimmage en route to a 66-yard touchdown on San Jose State’s opening possession of the second half. Air Force defensive lineman Alex Hansen blocked the PAT attempt by Bryce Crawford.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Air Force took an early lead when Garrett Brown took a pitch from Romine, turned the corner untouched and sped down the sideline for a 63-yard touchdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Romine also led a touchdown march that he finished off with a 1-yard run just before halftime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Air Force has won eight in a row at home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A late San Jose State turnover paved the way for D.J. Johnson’s fourth-quarter surge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":62201,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3080],"class_list":["post-54981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"652HE6X7FFALDF355T7HQ5QKLU","arc_canonical_url":"\/2015\/09\/13\/air-force-beats-san-jose-state-37-16\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n