San Diego Rides 256 Rushing Yards past Valparaiso 38-13
San Diego ran the ball 48 times for 256 yards and threw for 140. Valparaiso ran 23 times for 55. That is most of the story.
San Diego led from the first play of the scoring. It started with a safety at 13:00 of the first quarter, followed by an Adam Criter 5-yard run (the two-point try failed) and an 8-0 lead. Valparaiso answered with Cedric Benning III's 8-yard run to make it 8-7 at 2:21, but Omar Mbakwe's 2-yard run at 0:21 made it 15-7, and San Diego never let it get closer. Emiliano Salazar kicked field goals of 31 and 40 yards in the second quarter, the second at the buzzer, for a 21-7 halftime lead.
Valparaiso added two field goals from Luke Scoma (36 and 40 yards), both in the second half, but San Diego scored in between. Criter ran in from three yards for 28-10 at 13:44 of the fourth, Salazar hit from 47, and Thomas Bailey returned an interception 52 yards at 6:05 to make it 38-13. Valparaiso threw one interception and lost one fumble. San Diego turned it over zero times.
San Diego is 3-4 and Valparaiso is 2-4. Take away the pick-six and it is still a 31-13 game, so the interception did not decide it. Criter, listed as a wide receiver, did the damage with 20 carries and 136 yards.
The fantasy picture is a short one. No one in the game threw a touchdown pass, and the points lived on the ground and in one interception return, with Criter, Taylor and Mbakwe at the top. Taylor had 6 catches for 82 yards and no scores, which is a quiet 14.2, and Mbakwe's 11.7 came from 16 hard carries and one short touchdown run.