San Diego State Beats Heat, Navy, 45-31

First there was brunch, then there were big plays.

Kevin McKechnie, a senior making his first college start, threw for four touchdowns and scored one himself as San Diego State beat Navy, 45-31, in a wild season opener under the midday San Diego sun. Az Hakim returned a kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown and caught scoring passes of 40 and 47 yards.

McKechnie, who kept playing after spraining his left ankle in the third quarter, also threw touchdown passes of 78 yards to Taj Johnson and 18 yards to Damon Gourdine. He completed 16 of 20 passes for 371 yards, with one interception. He also scored on a four-yard bootleg just before halftime.

“I started out a little shaky, but my team pumped me up, got me going,” said McKechnie, whose first pass was picked off.

Hakim caught six passes for 172 yards. He hadn’t played since the seventh game of 1996, when a broken left leg kept him from a shot at a second consecutive 1,000-yard season. Johnson had six catches for 163 yards.

Due to the odd kickoff time of 11:30 a.m., the game drew only 21,176 to 71,600-seat Qualcomm Stadium. The game originally was scheduled for today, but potential national TV commitments for the Padres prevented setting definite kickoff times for either today or Thursday night.