{"id":447571,"date":"2026-08-29T22:32:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T22:32:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/447571\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T22:32:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T22:32:26","slug":"san-jose-state-falls-at-usc-but-strong-final-quarter-keeps-it-respectable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/447571\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose State falls at USC but strong final quarter keeps it respectable"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2014 San Jose State<\/a> knew it would have to play a perfect game to have a chance against No. 14 USC<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

A 28-0 halftime deficit took care of that.<\/p>\n

The Trojans totaled 312 yards in the first half to San Jose State\u2019s 108 and won 42-26 victory<\/a> at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.<\/p>\n

The Spartans (0-1) entered the game as 38.5-point underdogs and struggled to slow down the Trojans\u2019 offense early and were unable to mount a serious comeback after falling into a four-touchdown hole.<\/p>\n

They did make the score respectable in the final minutes, though.<\/p>\n

USC quarterback Jayden Maiava finished with 286 passing yards and two touchdowns on 25-of-29 passing. He extended the Trojans\u2019 lead to 35-3 when he connected with wide receiver Trent Mosley for a touchdown, coming shortly before San Jose State finally found the end zone.<\/p>\n

But there were positives for the Spartans to take from their first game of the season.<\/p>\n

San Jose State played a turnover-free game, and quarterback Luke Weaver, a Modesto native, made his first career start for the Spartans.<\/p>\n

Weaver led San Jose State on its first touchdown drive of the season to begin the fourth quarter, finding San Diego State transfer Jerry McClure for a 28-yard touchdown pass down the middle of the field.<\/p>\n

Weaver finished with 221 yards on 21 of 32 passing and two touchdown passes.<\/p>\n

The Spartans added another touchdown later in the fourth quarter when Weaver connected with Sacramento State transfer Jordan Anderson for a 3-yard touchdown pass.<\/p>\n

USC (1-0) dominated possession through the first three quarters. On their\u00a0 first drive, the Trojans marched 77 yards, with Maiava capping the drive with a 1-yard quarterback keeper to give USC an early lead.<\/p>\n

San Jose State\u2019s defense responded with one of its best moments of the first half, forcing a turnover on downs on USC\u2019s next scoring opportunity.<\/p>\n

Facing fourth-and-goal from the 4-yard line, Maiava kept the ball but was stopped after a 3-yard gain. Linebacker Ethan Powell made the tackle to keep the Trojans out of the end zone.<\/p>\n

But the Spartans\u2019 defense spent much of the first half on the field, and USC never punted before halftime.<\/p>\n

USC continued to add to its lead, with Kayden Dixon-Wyatt catching a 9-yard touchdown pass before King Miller scored on a 4-yard run with 30 seconds remaining in the first half to make it 28-0.<\/p>\n

Despite temperatures reaching 94 degrees, 51,144 fans attended the seventh all-time meeting between the schools at the Coliseum. USC remained undefeated in the series, improving to 7-0 against the Spartans.<\/p>\n

It was also a debut to remember for true freshman Carson Clark, who led San Jose State in receiving yards.<\/p>\n

The Spartans will remain on the road next week, traveling to Eastern Michigan for a 3:30 p.m. game Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 San Jose State knew it would have to play a perfect game to have a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[7,1471,1327,266,88,90,89,997,198,127],"class_list":["post-447571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-california","tag-central-coast","tag-college-sports","tag-northern-california","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-jose-state-spartans","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}