Explosive Titans Deflate San Jose St., 58-13 : Fullerton Opens 24-0 Lead En Route to Tying School Record for Points

Who would believe it?

Where were the broken plays? The blown blocking assignments? The goal-line folds?

Cal State Fullerton, the team with the bumbling offense, changed its ways Saturday with a 58-13 homecoming victory over San Jose State in front of 4,112 at Santa Ana Stadium.

Fullerton’s 58 points tied the school record, set against Santa Clara in 1976, and is the most points the Titans have scored against a Division I opponent.

It was Fullerton’s day, if ever there was one.

If a Fullerton pass was tipped, it most likely fell into the hands of a Fullerton player.

If a San Jose pass was tipped, it, too, most likely fell into the hands of a Fullerton player.

“Hurry up, we have to go buy our lottery tickets,” Fullerton Coach Gene Murphy said after the game. “Today’s our day.”

On Fullerton’s first play from scrimmage, quarterback Dan Speltz lofted a pass toward J.J. Celestine, who was making his first start at receiver only 2 weeks after being switched from cornerback.

It was a “go” pattern with no “go” in the pass, which was so badly underthrown that Celestine had to stop to catch it. But then he slipped away from cornerback Todd Granger, who was making his first start as well, and raced down the sideline for an 87-yard touchdown.

“I stopped, and the defensive back kept on going,” said Celestine, a sophomore. “He tried to strip the ball, and I got away. I just ran it in, simple as that.”

On Fullerton’s next possession, Stan Lambert kicked a 37-yard field goal.

San Jose then fumbled the ball at the 50, and Fullerton recovered. After two incomplete passes, Speltz hit Mike Pringle with a short pass, and the tailback carried to the 10. Pringle then scored on the next play to give Fullerton a 17-0 lead.

“Everything went our way, which was a nice change,” said Pringle, who missed 2 games this season because of an NCAA eligibility ruling and another game because of an ankle injury. He finished with 131 yards rushing on 17 carries and 2 touchdowns, both punctuated by flamboyant high-stepping into the end zone.

“There was nobody there,” Pringle said. “I ran around ‘em and I ran through ‘em. My knees just come up when I get to the end zone.”

He also caught 5 passes for 100 yards.

Fullerton led, 24-0, before San Jose scored on a sneak by freshman quarterback Greg Centilli, playing for Ken Lutz, who was out for the second week with a shoulder injury.

“Anything that can go wrong, has,” Centilli said. “The score was outrageous, but we just beat ourselves.”

By halftime, Fullerton had scored more points (38) than it had in any game all year (24).

“I don’t know what team that was, but I don’t care,” said Murphy, whose team is 4-6 overall, 4-2 in the Big West. “We jelled today.”

San Jose State posted 10-2 seasons in each of the past 2 years, but this year has been very different. The Spartans lost their third consecutive game and fell to 3-8, 3-3 in the Big West.

“It was so bad . . . I don’t know what to say,” San Jose State Coach Claude Gilbert said. “It needs no explanation. This is about as low as you can get.”

No conference opponent had scored so many points against the Spartans.

The Titans’ 587 yards in total offense was 5 yards shy of the school record. Fullerton quarterback Dan Speltz had easily the best day of his Titan career, completing 16 of 27 passes for 325 yards and 3 touchdowns. He was only 12 yards short of the Fullerton single-game passing record, and almost surely would have broken it had he not left the game in the third quarter.

Not all the record performances were positive, though. Fullerton was penalized 18 times, breaking its record of 16 reached several times last season.

One player who set a school record was backup cornerback Tony Williams, who picked off two passes in the fourth quarter and returned them for touchdowns of 92 and 86 yards. The 178 yards in interception returns was the highest single-game total in school history.

How did he feel after the game?

“Tired.”

Another player who had a big day was receiver Tony Dill, who caught two touchdown passes, the first he has caught since being converted from quarterback this season.

And one player who didn’t get much of a chance to prove himself was punter Kurt Bloedorn, filling in for the injured Jim Sirois. The Titans punted only once in the game, Bloedorn’s 49-yarder.

“Basically, a lot of plays went the way they are designed to go today,” Speltz said.

Basically, indeed.

“Week in and week out, we have good plays and bad plays,” Speltz said.

And this was a day for the good plays.

“If you stay in the game long enough, you’re going to win by 50 and you’re going to lose by 50,” Murphy said.

For a change, he got to use that line after a victory.

Titan Notes

Fullerton’s starting offensive tackles, Matt Fitts (elbow) and Mike Oliver (knee), were injured. Their status was uncertain after the game. . . . The injuries put such a bind on the shallow offensive line corps that sophomore Steve Cuttrell, who did not dress for the game, was hurriedly put into uniform.