Dec. 1, 2007
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SAN DIEGO (AP) - Freshman Harvey Unga ran for 161 yards and scored four touchdowns to lead No. 21 BYU to a 48-27 victory over San Diego State on Saturday night.
Unga scored on runs of 1, 7 and 3 yards, and caught an 8-yard TD pass from Max Hall as the Cougars (10-2, 8-0 Mountain West) completed the regular season with their ninth straight win.
Winners of 16 consecutive conference games, the Cougars await their bowl fate. It appears likely that they will play in the Las Vegas Bowl, which can select any Mountain West team.
BYU, which clinched the outright conference title last week with win at Utah, rushed for 311 yards in a game that was postponed from Oct. 27 due to wildfires in San Diego. Fui Vakapuna added 97 yards on 14 carries as BYU gained 538 yards in total offense.
Hall completed 19 of 26 passes for 227 yards with one interception. Besides his scoring pass to Unga, Hall also threw touchdown passes of 17 yards to Austin Collie and 13 yards to Dennis Pitta.
San Diego State (4-8, 3-5) allowed a combined 148 points and 1,902 total yards in its last three games.
The Aztecs kept the game close through the first half, trailing just 20-13 at the break. But Unga scored on a 7-yard run on BYU's first possession of the second half.
Kevin O'Connell hit Lynell Hamilton with a 3-yard touchdown pass just past the midway point of the third quarter to pull the Aztecs to 27-20, but the Cougars responded with Unga's 3-yard TD run just before the end of the quarter.
Vakapuna scored from 2 yards out less than 3 minutes into the fourth quarter to give BYU a 41-20 lead.
O'Connell completed 33 of 55 passes for 288 yards and one interception. He also scored on runs of 7 and 2 yards.