What San Diego State coach Sean Lewis said after the Aztecs regained the Mountain West lead

San Diego State is back in sole possession of the Mountain West football race after a 17-7 win against Boise State on a wet, miserable night at Snapdragon Stadium.

The Aztecs (8-2, 5-1) bounced from being outplayed in all three phases in a dismal 38-6 loss at Hawaii to control the game against the Broncos (6-4, 4-2). Both teams were mostly limited to the ground game, and SDSU responded with 277 yards rushing behind Lucky Sutton and Christian Washington.

“Aztecs, that was a lot of fun,” coach Sean Lewis said. “Great effort, great enthusiasm, great passion from the boys today. I’m really proud of the discipline in a game like that, where there's a lot of emotion; our guys played with passion. They played with emotion, but they did not get emotional. I’m really pleased with how all three phases played together.

“I believe that we won situational football that really opened the game in some critical areas. We were able to limit their run game and lean on ours on a night when the good Lord thought it would be a good idea to rain for most of the night.”

With two games left, the Aztecs control the path to hosting the MW championship game on Dec. 5. They host San Jose State this Saturday night before finishing the regular season at New Mexico.

Technically, BSU dropped to third behind Fresno State, which beat the Broncos 30-7 in Boise two weekends ago. There are five teams bunched at 4-2.

Here are the highlights of Lewis’ postgame news conference:

Lewis on the fan turnout on a wet night

“I really appreciate the fans who came out and braved the elements. They did a great job creating some awesome energy and an excellent environment for our guys to feed off. That's a really big deal. It's some of those critical downs for our guys to pull on that, especially down the stretch, where the game's been long, it's been like a heavyweight fight. There's been a lot of body blows delivered and received.”

Lewis on Senior Night against San Jose State

“We have a great opportunity in a week to honor these seniors on Senior Night for deciding to come back to finish something special, and to honor an 8-2 team, for this place to be packed. It’s really important for our community to step up and to do that again. I'm not really smart. I have a journalism major, but the math says if 1% of San Diego County shows up, we get a sellout. I know that we can do that. I'm proud of our community, I'm proud of our guys, I'm proud of our staff, and I'm proud of the response. It's a good night to be an Aztec.”

Lewis on the offensive line’s ability to control the game

“That's phenomenal, right? Ross Ulugalu-Maseuli, being at center, has a knowledge of the system in year two, where he's able to get all five of those boys plus the tight ends working together. It’s crucial on a night like this, where throwing the ball for either team is really hard because of the elements. We were able to lean on the run game and have the mindset that ‘It doesn't matter, because we're running the ball right there. That's who we are. At our core, we are a tough, blue-collar, nasty team that's going to be physical and win the point of attack at the line of scrimmage. By doing that, it opens up a lot of other things.”

Lewis on emphasizing the running game

“We had the ability to run the ball, to control the game script, to play complementary football, and to play the strengths of our units. We were able to do what was best for the club, and Jayden Denegal was all about it. He did a tremendous job on our run checks, and he was able to manage that. A lot of his efforts at quarterback won’t show up on the stat sheet, but he gets us into proper runs based on the fronts we're seeing, so we can get advantageous looks and lead us into those explosive runs. That’s a really smart kid, a really humble kid. When the opportunity presents itself, we'll let him throw it, and he knows.”

Lewis on the wide receivers’ contributions

“The wide receivers did a great job as well. On a night like that, where you got 59 snaps with only 10 pass attempts, it's easy for a group of wide receivers and throw game guys to kind of get bored. But they took tremendous pride in going in and blocking and doing the dirty work. I’m really pleased with that effort. Again, at the end of the day, let's find a way to win. That's what we did tonight. Lucky Sutton obviously had the 150 yards, but Christian Washington really got the offense going with a 41-yard run.”

Lewis on the team’s composure and performance

“We played to our standard. We were present in the moment during the prep. We were present tonight. We didn't try to press. We didn't try to do too much. The guys did their job, and they played cohesively. They played together, and they played violently. I say that with utmost admiration. This game requires some physical brutality, and our guys make it unique.”