FRESNO, Calif. - Raymond Washington leaped high to block Tommy Kirovski's 31-yard field-goal attempt as time expired, giving Fresno State a 16-14 victory over San Diego State on Thursday night despite the absence of two key players.
The Aztecs were shut out until the waning seconds of the third quarter, but they were in position to make coach Tom Craft's debut a huge success when Adam Hall drove San Diego State 51 yards to the Fresno State 14 with two seconds left.
The long snap was bobbled a bit and Washington, a freshman backup cornerback, jumped over the pile to block Kirovsky's kick, sending the Bulldogs onto the field in a frenzied celebration. Fresno State has lost just four games at Bulldog Stadium in coach Pat Hill's six seasons.
Freshman backup quarterback Paul Pinegar passed for 196 yards, and Asen Asparuhov kicked three field goals as Fresno State (1-1) barely escaped without starting quarterback Jeff Grady and star receiver Bernard Berrian.
Both players were held out of the home opener to rest injuries they sustained last week at Wisconsin.
Hall was 25-for-37 for 240 yards and a touchdown for the Aztecs, who lost the game but improved their credibility in their first game under Craft. The former Aztecs quarterback brought a high-powered passing offense from junior college to revitalize his alma mater, and it was dramatically effective in the fourth quarter.
The Aztecs didn't score until the final seconds of the third, but J.R. Tolver's 31-yard TD reception with 6:30 left cut the Bulldogs' lead to two points. Tolver caught 10 passes for 158 yards, while Kassim Osgood had nine catches for 58 yards.
Grady, the successor to David Carr, practiced with Fresno State all week, but team doctors decided not to risk his bruised hip. Berrian, who sprained his knee early in the Bulldogs' loss to the Badgers, didn't practice and probably won't play next week against Oregon.
Though Pinegar showed flashes of why he's been touted as the next big name in a school quarterback lineage that includes Trent Dilfer, Billy Volek and Carr, he had plenty of hiccups, too.
In addition to several poor passes, Pinegar fumbled a shotgun snap on a key third-down play, and he turned it over on a snap early in the fourth quarter when the Bulldogs led 10-7.
San Diego State hurt itself with several mistakes. A shotgun snap went wildly past Hall in the third quarter, and Nick Burley recovered it at the San Diego State 17. Asparuhov hit his third field goal from 30 yards with 8:26 left.
Fresno State fumbled four times and committed seven penalties for 74 yards. Pinegar threw a 4-yard TD pass to Deandre Gilbert late in the second quarter, but San Diego State finally scored when James Truvillion's 1-yard TD run capped a 94-yard drive helped by two key Bulldogs penalties.
Fresno State took a week off from its annual quest to play the nation's toughest non-conference schedule to renew its rivalry with San Diego State. The Bulldogs snapped a four-game losing streak against their once-annual rivals in a series that hadn't been played since 1998.
The Bulldogs pride themselves on their home-field advantage, but at kickoff, several thousand empty seats remained at Bulldog Stadium, which was filled to capacity with the screaming "Red Wave" for 10 of Fresno State's previous 11 games.
By GREG BEACHAM
AP Sports Writer