NCAA Endzone

San Jose State 20, New Mexico 12
Adam Tafralis threw three touchdown passes Saturday and San Jose State defeated New Mexico, 20-12, in the inaugural New Mexico Bowl at Albuquerque.

New Mexico (6-7) hasn’t won a bowl game since it beat Western Michigan in the 1961 Aviation Bowl and is 0-5 since 1997.

For the Spartans (9-4), the victory provided a final highlight in a season in which they won more games than they had in the three previous seasons.

Tafralis, who completed 11 of 18 passes for 209 yards, threw scoring passes of 36 and 24 yards to James Jones and 76 yards to John Broussard. The pass to Broussard on the first play of the second quarter got the Spartans’ offense rolling.

New Mexico’s only touchdown came with 15 seconds left in the game on a 15-yard pass from Chris Nelson to Marcus Smith.

Utah 25, Tulsa 13
Louie Sakoda kicked four field goals, defensive standout Eric Weddle ran for a touchdown and the Utes (8-5) won their sixth bowl in a row with a victory over the Golden Hurricane in the Armed Forces Bowl at Fort Worth, Texas.

Brett Ratliff completed 23 of 34 passes for 240 yards and was credited with a 10-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter, though it was actually a designed catch-and-pitch. Brian Hernandez caught the ball behind the line of scrimmage and pitched to Brent Casteel, who ran around the left end and leaped into the end zone.

Paul Smith scored on two one-yard keepers for Tulsa (8-5), which finished a once-promising season with its fourth loss in five games.

South Florida 24, East Carolina
Benjamin Williams rushed for two first-half touchdowns yesterday to help lead South Florida to a 24-7 victory over East Carolina in the inaugural PapaJohns.com Bowl in Birmingham, Ala. The victiory was the first bowl win ever for South Florida.

The Bulls (9-4) played a scoreless second half without quarterback Matt Grothe. The Big East freshman of the year was kicked in the right shin in the second quarter and returned only for the next and final series of the half, but the defense kept turning back the Pirates (7-6).

South Florida racked up six sacks, including two after East Carolina had first down from the 4-yard line on a late drive led by backup quarterback Rob Kass.