Aggies lose lead, game to Spartans

San Jose State 21, Utah State 14

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Patrick Perry's 3-yard touchdown run with just under four minutes remaining lifted San Jose State to a 21-14 come-from-behind win over Utah State on Saturday.

Quarterback Adam Tafralis passed for 252 yards and a pair of touchdowns for the Spartans (4-1, 1-0 Western Athletic Conference), who won their fourth straight despite falling behind 14-0 in the first half.

San Jose is off to its best start since 1987, when the Spartans played in the Big West Conference.

The Spartans beat Utah State despite committing four turnovers, two at the Aggies' goal line in the fourth quarter. One of those came on a fumble by Perry, but the San Jose sophomore got a shot at redemption and made it pay off with his game-winning score.

Perry's touchdown capped an 81-yard scoring drive and prevented Utah State (1-6, 1-2) from winning consecutive road games for the first time since 2003.

Utah State freshman quarterback Riley Nelson completed 21 of 24 attempts for 145 yards and two touchdowns and added 50 yards rushing in just his second start of the year, but he couldn't get the Aggies into the end zone in the second half. His last-ditch pass on 4th-and-3 to tight end Rob Myers ended in a 2-yard loss with 1:16 left to play.

San Jose had trouble hanging onto the ball all afternoon, particularly wide receiver James Jones, who fumbled two punt returns and muffed a third. But he came up big for the Spartans offense when he caught eight passes for a career-high 134 yards and a touchdown.

It was Jones who made a one-handed catch off a short pass over the middle from Tafralis and turned it into a 50-yard touchdown late in the third quarter, tying the score at 14-14. Jones also had two catches for 16 yards on the Spartans' winning drive, but it was Tafralis' 24-yard completion to John Broussard that set Perry up for his three-yard score.

Utah State scored twice in the first half on a pair of touchdown passes from Nelson, and led 14-7 at halftime.