Oct. 14, 2007
Final Stats
SAN DIEGO (AP) - Josh Johnson threw five touchdown passes and San Diego extended its home winning streak to 22 games with a 59-19 win over Drake on Saturday.
The Toreros (6-0, 3-0 Pioneer Football League) also got two interception returns for touchdowns as their defense forced seven turnovers that produced 28 points.
Defensive end Eric Bakhtiari set a school record with four sacks - all in the first half. Three of Bakhtiari's sacks forced fumbles that were recovered by San Diego, including one by Bakhtiari. The three forced fumbles are a new Torero record in a game, and he finished with a game-high 10 tackles despite coming out in the 3rd quarter. He also was credited with 6 tackles for loss, 2 quarterback hurries and 1 pass breakup.
"Our defense created six first half turnovers, which were huge," stated head coach Ron Caragher. "It took us a little while to get our offense going, which is uncharacteristic of us, but our defense just kept creating opportunities for us with those turnovers. But once we got it going offensivley, we really got it going. Drake had a good game plan defensively and offensively, but the turnovers were just so huge. Turnovers is the statistic that correlates most to winning football games in my mind. Additionally,
Eric Bakhtiari was terrific tonight. It was great to see him bounce back after a tough game on the road in the humidity last week. But Eric being the champion that he is, bounced back with a great effort and just put so much pressure on their offense."
San Diego, two-time defending PFL champions, has won 33 of 35 games and 18 straight conference games.
Johnson threw first-half touchdown passes of 3 yards to Wes Doyle, a 10-yarder to Mitch Ryan and hit John Matthews for 77 yards. Johnson finished 15-for-23 passing for 305 yards and ran for 65 yards on eight carries.
San Diego sandwiched the touchdown passes around a Jordan Sinclair's 43-yard interception return for a touchdown and a 99-yard interception return for a score by Ben Hannula late in the first half. Hutch Parker added a 39-yard field goal as time expired for a 38-0 halftime lead.
"I drank a lot of water today," explained
Eric Bakhtiari, who experienced some dehydration in last week's road game at Valparaiso. "My roommates kept pumping water in me because last week I got dehydrated and didn't play very well. So this week, my roommates wanted to make sure I had plenty of fluids in me. It was just a great team defensive effort tonight. Our ends did a great job, and our corners were unbelievable tonight. That is why I was able to get so much pressure on the quarterback tonight because our corners had all their receivers covered and he had to hold on to the ball so long."
Johnson hit Doyle for a 7-yard TD pass and added a 32-yard scoring pass to Derron Juarez in the third quarter for a 52-0 lead.
Drake (5-2, 2-1 PFL) scored on Michael Bialas' 3-yard touchdown run, a 9-yarder by Isaiah Ellison and Nate Snead's 8-yard run, all in the fourth quarter.
