Brink has huge day as Cougars blast San Diego St., 45-17

Washington State quarterback Alex Brink wants to play in the NFL next year. On Saturday, he had a monster day in a pro stadium.

Brink completed 38 of 47 passes for 469 yards and five touchdowns Saturday as WSU rolled past San Diego State 45-17 before 46,290 at Qwest Field. He was intercepted once and was lifted with 6:10 left in the game.

The 469-yard aerial output was the third-best in school history. Brink set the record of 531 in a loss at Oregon State in 2005.

The Cougars rushed for 185 yards for a total yardage of 654. San Diego State, which hurt itself with 13 penalties, finished with 399 total yards.

"I thought offensively we played a great ballgame," Cougars coach Bill Doba said. "We still have a long way to go defensively."

San Diego State entered the game with 16 consecutive losses to Pac-10 teams since 1996 and once the Cougars got rolling there was little doubt the steak was headed to 17.

Brink threw touchdown passes to four different receivers, with Brandon Gibson catching scoring strikes of 6 and 31 yards. Freshman flash Jeshua Anderson caught a 39-yard TD and tight ends Jed Collins and Ben Woodard caught TD passes of 3 and 18 yards in the third quarter.

The Cougars defense, which had only one sack at Wisconsin, had four Saturday.

The Cougars led 24-10 at halftime and Brink had thrown for 304 yards and two touchdowns. It was the most productive 30 minutes of the fifth-year senior's career.

The Cougars went up 31-10 on their first drive in the second half after Brink connected with Collins for the 3-yard score on a drive that featured a 31-yard run by Dwight Tardy.

Later in the quarter, Brink found Woodard to increase the lead to 38-10 with 5:38 left in the period.

In the fourth quarter, Brink found Gibson with the 31-yard touchdown pass after Kevin O'Connell of SDSU hit Darren Mougey with a 19-yard score.

The game was competitive for a quarter and it was a wild one, with teams tied at 10. Brink completed 11 of 13 passes for 139 yards in the quarter.

San Diego opened scoring with a 23-yard field goal after three apparent touchdowns were called back.

First, it was ruled that Steve Schmidt didn't have possession of a would-be 18-yard scoring pass from O'Connell, then an apparent 8-yard TD by Atiyah Henderson on a Statue of Liberty play was called back and he was ruled down at the 1-yard line. After that, a 1-yard quarterback sneak by Darren Mougey, a wide receiver who has played QB, was called back because of a delay-of-game penalty.

The Cougars wasted no time in taking a 7-3 lead as they marched 67 yards on five plays and Gibson caught the 6-yard TD pass from Brink.

The Aztecs replied with a 59-yard touchdown run by Brandon Bornes on the left side for a 10-7 lead. It was a well-blocked but routine play.

The Cougars tied the score at 10-10 with a 31-yard field goal by Romeen Abdollmohammadi.

WSU took a 17-10 lead early in the second quarter after Alfonso Jackson made an interception late in the first quarter at the WSU 37 in one of the biggest plays of the game. A three-play drive ended with Dwight Tardy plunging over the from 1-yard line behind a lead block from Collins, who lined up as a blocking back.

The Cougars went up 24-10 on their next possession when freshman jetpack Anderson got 5 yards behind defender Aaron Moore and caught a feathery pass from Brink for a 39-yard TD. Anderson set the national high-school 300-meter hurdle record of 35.28 seconds last spring at Taft High School in Mission Hills, Calif.

The Cougars threatened to score a third TD in the second quarter and were on the 21 but Brink threw his only bad pass of the game and it was intercepted by Vonnie Holmes at the 2. Brink was trying to hit Gibson in the end zone.

After going on defense, the Cougars had the Aztecs bottled up with a third-and-9 at the 1 but O'Connell found room to roll out and hit Brett Swain for a 26-yard gain. The drive fizzled after a fourth-down conversion and ended with a missed 54-yard field goal.

WSU starting free safety Husain Abdullah left the game in the second quarter with a head injury and didn't return. As a co-captain, he jogged with teammates out onto the field for the second-half meeting with officials but wore sweatpants and no helmet.

This was the Cougars' sixth consecutive year of playing a game at Qwest Field and the win improved the record to 5-1 in the "home" Qwest games and extended the Seattle winning streak to three games. The biggest crowd was 63,588 in the 31-7 win over Nevada in the inaugural year of 2002, when the new stadium itself was part of the draw.

Craig Smith: 206-464-8279 or csmith@seattletimes.com