Cougars fade late, suffer first loss of season

SAN DIEGO (AP) - San Diego State took another important step in trying to change its football identity.

Behind Ronnie Hillman's four touchdowns, San Diego State won its third straight game to start the season for the first time in 30 years with a 42-24 win over Washington State on Saturday.

The win also broke the Aztecs' 22-game losing streak against BCS schools and snapped a 19-game losing streak to teams in the Pac-12.

"I think it's a big step for the San Diego State program," said first-year coach Rocky Long. "But I think we're going to win every week."

Long, the school's defensive coordinator the last two years under Brady Hoke, has bristled about the issue of his team's history. San Diego State had its first winning season and won its first bowl game last year since 1998.

"It's a great win, probably the best win since I've been here," said Aztecs quarterback Ryan Lindley, a four-year starter.

Hillman rushed for 191 yards and played a big part in the Aztecs ending their futility against schools from larger conferences.

The sophomore scored on runs of 13 and 12 yards in the first half before scoring on a 1-yard dash to give San Diego State a 28-24 lead nearly five minutes into the fourth quarter. Hillman then added a 59-yard TD run at the 7:26 mark.

"I'm a little bit of a perfectionist," said Lindley about his feelings about Hillman. "I almost expect him to do that."

The last Hillman touchdown came one play after linebacker Rob Andrews recovered a fumble by Washington State quarterback Marshall Lobbestael at the 36-yard line with 7:36 left.

Lobbestael threw touchdown passes of 80 and 78 yards to Marquess Wilson for Washington State (2-1). Lobbestael, who took over for injured starter Jeff Tuel in the first game of the season, completed 20 of 42 passes for 368 yards with three TDs and two interceptions.

All of Loebbestael's turnovers came in the final 7? minutes of the game.

"We came out kind of shaky at first, but at halftime we nailed it down to our techniques and what our alignments needed to be," said defensive back Leon McFadden.

After allowing 260 yards in total offense to the Cougars in the first half, San Diego State put more pressure on Lobbestael. The Aztecs sacked the senior four times in the second half and forcing him into three turnovers in the final 7:36 of the game.

"We didn't execute at as high a level in the second half as we did in the first half," Lobbestael said. "There were times in the second half we had opportunities to make plays but we made too many mistakes."

Washington State, which led 17-14 at halftime, made too many errors in the second half.

"We turned the ball over four times and you can't do that," Washington State coach Paul Wulff. "In the third quarter, we kind of let that slip away and we never got our composure back after that."

Hillman ran 32 times as he scored four rushing touchdowns for the second time in his career. Hillman, who came into the game as the second-leading rusher at a clip of 153 yards per game, has scored 14 touchdowns in his last six games, contributing to 500 yards of total offense for the Aztecs on the day.

Lindley threw for 273 yards, but also committed the first two San Diego State turnovers this season with an interception and later fumbling a snap out of the shotgun formation at the Cougars 16-yard line.

Washington State, the nation's highest-scoring team at 61.5 points per game, scored on its first play from scrimmage, an 80-yard pass to Wilson. Lobbestael later hit Wilson on a 78-yard scoring pass to give Washington State a 24-14 lead early in the third quarter.

Wilson finished with six catches for a career-high 236 yards.

Lindley passed the 10,000-yard career passing mark with a second-quarter completion. Lindley is second in school history to Todd Santos, who threw for 11,425 yards.

Lindley has thrown touchdown passes in 13 straight games, but his lone interception broke a string of 112 pass attempts without one.

After the Cougars scored on their first play from scrimmage, San Diego State responded with a score on a 13-yard run by Hillman. Washington State took a 10-7 lead on Andrew Furney's 48-yard field goal.

The Aztecs then went 76 yards in 13 plays with Hillman scoring on a 12-yard run at the end of the first quarter.

It was the seventh straight game that San Diego State scored at least 14 points in the first quarter.

Lobbestael gave Washington State a 17-14 halftime lead after a 23-yard TD pass to Isiah Barton.