Colorado State Beats San Diego State 56-49 as Hejny Accounts for Five Touchdowns

Colorado State beat San Diego State 56-49 at Canvas Stadium in Fort Collins on Saturday night in a game that kept swinging until the last two minutes. Hauss Hejny threw for 333 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 76 yards and two touchdowns, and the Rams held on after San Diego State scored late and tried an onside kick.

The Rams led 56-42 with 8:43 left after Hejny capped a nine-play, 75-yard drive in 3:46 with a 30-yard touchdown run. That was his second rushing score of the night to go with his three passing touchdowns. Durell Robinson had already run for two touchdowns as Colorado State built its lead by halftime.

A finish that nearly got away

The last eight minutes tested the lead from both sides. San Diego State threw an interception that D'Mon Brinson returned to the Aztec 3-yard line, a play that should have ended the argument. On the first snap after it, Hejny ran, fell awkwardly and lost the ball when it was punched out. San Diego State took over at its own 1-yard line.

The Aztecs then went 99 yards in 6:23. Lucky Sutton ran in from 7 yards to cut the score to 56-49 with 1:57 left, and San Diego State still held all three timeouts. The onside kick that followed was the game. Jackson Harper recovered it for Colorado State, and the Rams ran out the clock, with Hejny kneeling at the San Diego State 29 in the final seconds.

What the numbers say

The final score was 56-49, and the quarter-by-quarter flow matched the live report: Colorado State led at halftime behind two Hejny passing touchdowns and two Robinson rushing touchdowns, then traded scores with the Aztecs through the second half. Hejny's line at the 56-42 mark, 333 passing yards, three passing touchdowns, 76 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns, was the clear individual performance of the night.

San Diego State stayed in the game because it kept answering. The 99-yard drive from its own goal line, finished by Sutton, was the best drive of the night by either team, and it came after the Aztecs had just thrown an interception at the other end.

What it means

Colorado State came into the game on a run of four straight losses, according to the Fort Collins Coloradoan, which was covering the game live from Canvas Stadium. A win this wild does not fix a season, but it stops the slide and it gives the Rams a quarterback performance to build on. San Diego State, which arrived still alive in the conference title race, leaves with a loss it had in its hands twice in the last eight minutes, first on the interception return that flipped back, then on the onside kick it did not recover.

The Rams' next job is to defend better than a 49-point night suggests. The Aztecs' next job is simpler to state and harder to do: finish a comeback that was 99 yards long and still one recovery short.