Aztecs hold on to beat Cal 45-40 in a thriller

San Diego State fans might have a difficult time deciding which would be more exciting, seeing the Aztecs beat a Power Five team or watching running back D.J. Pumphrey become the school’s career rushing leader.

Fortunately, they didn’t have to choose. Although they likely bit their nails to the nubs finding out — the game in doubt until Damontae Kazee’s interception with nine seconds remaining to play.

The Aztecs held on for a 45-40 victory over Cal before the 42,473 fans on Saturday night who stuck around until almost Sunday before the game was decided at Qualcomm Stadium.

“I’ve never been so stressed in my life,” SDSU linebacker Calvin Munson said SDSU's 12th straight win.

Pumphrey passed three NFL Hall of Famers — two of them on one run — in the game as the Aztecs (2-0) defeated a Power Five team for only the second time in 31 games by beating Cal (1-1).

A 15-yard run with 6:07 remaining in the game moved Pumphrey past Marshall Faulk, who rushed for 4,589 yards during his three-year Aztecs career from 1991-93, and into the No. 44 spot on the NCAA’s career rushing list.

Earlier, Pumphrey rushed past Earl Campbell and Eric Dickerson on a 33-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.

Pumphrey finished the game with 29 carries, for 281 yards and three touchdowns. Pumphrey now has 4,651 career yards in a collegiate career that has spanned three years and two games. He moved past 25 players — from No. 64 to No. 39 all-time — in the game.

“It’s definitely going to be a major memory for me,” Pumphrey said. “Just to be able to do this with my teammates here, my family here, the coaching staff, and athletic department. It’s unreal.”

Pumphrey punctuated his performance with a 4-yard TD run that — seemingly — put the game away when it gave SDSU an 11-point lead with 2:47 remaining to play.

Somewhere, Faulk had to be nodding his approval.

It was Faulk’s then-record 386-yard, seven-touchdown performance 25 years ago against University of the Pacific that signaled his arrival.

He was passed on a night that Pumphrey gained the fifth-most yards in a game in school history.

“I think it’s great,” SDSU head coach Rocky Long said. “Anytime you do something that unique with a player that good it’s something special.

“I’ll tell you who is real happy is his offensive line. ... The offensive line will probably be bragging about it when they are my age.”

But Long didn’t want this game remembered for just one performance. He wanted it remembered for all of them.

“That’s about as good a team win as there’s ever been,” Long said. “It’s good that DJ broke the record and all those good things, but it’s more about a football team winning than it is about him breaking the record.

“There were about 15 plays in that game that were important to us winning,” said Long, who then corrected himself. “Maybe 20 plays that were very important to us winning.”

Let’s see:

— There was the fumble Randy Ricks forced and Na’im McGee recovered in the first quarter that set up a 25-yard Christian Chapman to Rashaad Penny touchdown pass to open the game’s scoring midway through the opening period.

— There was Rashaad Penny’s 100-yard kickoff return in the first quarter that gave SDSU a 14-7 . It was the school-record fourth TD return of his career. There have been six 100-yard returns in the program’s 94-year history. Penny has three of them.

— There was linebacker Ronley Lakalaka’s interception for a 9-yard touchdown, giving SDSU a 28-21 lead midway through the second quarter.

— There was cornerback Derek Babiash tipping a Webb pass in the end zone that teammate Kameron Kelly intercepted to thwart another Bears scoring drive.

— There was the Aztecs defense stopping Cal on fourth-and-5 at the SDSU 32 early in the fourth quarter, moments after the Aztecs offense had turned the ball over on a fumbled snap.

— There was punter Tanner Blain booming a 50-yard punt with four minutes remaining to push Cal back to its own 16-yard line.

— There was linebacker Calvin Munson making a game-high 14 tackles (including one sack).

— And, of course, there was Kazee’s interception with nine ticks left on the clock and Cal just 22 yards away from a game-winning score.

The way Bears quarterback Davis Webb had played — 41-of-72 for 522 yards and five touchdowns — many in the crowd had to be covering their eyes at the end.

Webb countered each of SDSU’s three touchdowns with TD passes of his own, although SDSU took a 31-21 lead into the half after Lakalaka’s interception return and a 39-yard field goal by John Baron II.

Pumphrey turned it on after intermission, rushing seven of the team’s first eight plays in the third quarter for a total of 105 yards. Most of them came on a 57-yard touchdown run that provided a 38-21 advantage.

But back came Cal again, Webb throwing a 59-yard touchdown pass to Demetris Robertson before teammate Matt Anderson added two field goals to make it a four-point game at 38-34.

The second field goal came after Cal’s Evan Rambo picked off Chapman on the first play of the fourth quarter, snapping SDSU’s string of 254 passes and a school-record 13 games without an interception.

Pumphrey’s third touchdown, with 3:28 to play, made things seem safe again at 45-34. But Webb hit Raymond Hudson for a 2-yard TD with 56 seconds remaining to make it 45-40. After a two-point conversion attempt failed, Cal recovered an onside kick at the SDSU 47.

The Bears then ran seven plays — 10-yard pass, incompletion, 3-yard pass, incompletion, 11-yard pass, 7-yard pass, incompletion — to get to the SDSU 22 with 13 seconds remaining.

On the eighth play, Webb tried a short pass that Kazee tipped. Then he turned back to the ball and caught it before it touched the ground, setting off a celebration.

Most defenses that just gave up 604 yards in total offense would walk off the field with the players hanging their heads. Not this one.

In the closing moments, Pumphrey said, “I had to stand to myself and just pray to God.”

But he never took his eyes off the field.

“I had faith in my defense,” Pumphrey said, “and they did what they had to do to get us that victory.”

kirk.kenney@sduniontribune.com / on Twitter: @sdutkirKDKenney