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Fiesta Sports Foundation

Rate Bowl History

31st Annual Game, 2019

  • Teams Air Force vs. Washington State
  • Score 31-21, Air Force
  • Date December 27, 2019
  • Attendance 34,105

Biography

In the highest-attended Cheez-It® Bowl since 2016, 34,105 fans witnessed some of the nation's most prolific offenses – Air Force's triple option and Washington State's air raid – meet for the first time ever on Dec. 27, 2019. With a strong rushing attack, Air Force broke five Cheez-It® Bowl records en route to a 31-21 win over Washington State at Chase Field.
 
The win capped a historic 11-2 season for the Falcons, who ended the season having won eight straight games. Both the 11 wins and eight game win streak are third best in program history.
 
The Falcons were able to slow down the Cougars' prolific offense, setting a Cheez-It® Bowl record for time of possession with 43:24. With four rushing touchdowns, Air Force broke Cheez-It® Bowl records for first downs rushing (27) and rushing attempts (69) in a single game with the latter previously held by College Football Hall of Famer and former Falcons head coach, Fisher DeBerry, in 1995.
 
The Falcons began the game by stopping Washington State on downs at its own two-yard line. From the first to second quarter, Air Force went 98 yards in 20 plays, capped by a one-yard rushing touchdown by junior quarterback Donald Hammond III to put the Falcons on the board, 7-0. The 20-play drive, which took 12:23, is tied for the longest drive of the season in FBS play.
 
Washington State tied the game 7-7 as redshirt senior quarterback Anthony Gordon hit wide receiver Dezmon Patmon for a two-yard touchdown.
 
After a 15-play drive, Air Force senior place kicker Jake Koehnke put the Falcons back on top 10-7, with a 28-yard field goal. Finishing the season with a perfect 13 of 13 on field goals, Koehnke became the second kicker in program history to have a perfect season on field goal attempts.
 
With 3:39 left in the second quarter, Falcons junior linebacker Grant Donaldson sacked Washington State's Gordon at the WSU 20-yard line to record his first-career forced fumble on his way to become the Cheez-It® Bowl Defensive Player of the Game. With the ball recovered by Falcons linebacker Christopher Herrera, Air Force had its quickest scoring driving, extending the lead 17-7.
 
In less than a minute, WSU's Gordon hit sophomore running back Max Borghi for a five-yard touchdown to close in on Air Force at halftime, 17-14.
 
The Falcons were able to separate themselves in the third quarter with a 13-play touchdown drive, capped by a seven-yard run by Hammond to go up 24-14. With 14:10 to play in the fourth quarter, Air Force held off another fourth and goal play by the Cougars stopping the rush attempt from the five.
 
The Cougars wouldn't go away without a fight after Gordon hit redshirt senior wide receiver Brandon Arconado with a 13-yard touchdown pass, pulling within a field goal and Air Force still on top 24-21. Arconado set a WSU bowl record of 11 passes caught for 167 yards and finished the season receiving 1,107 yards, the first 1,000-yard season since Gabe Marks and Dom Williams in 2015.
 
Bleeding the clock out with a 60-yard drive, Air Force put the game away with a three-yard touchdown run by Remsberg. As the Cheez-It® Bowl Offensive Player of the Game, Remsberg rushed for an Air Force bowl record of 178 yards on 26 carries to record his fourth-career 100-yard game. The Newton, Kan. native finished the season with 1,050 yards, becoming the first Falcon since Jacobi Owens (2015) to rush for 1,000 yards in a single season.
 
With a program record five consecutive bowl appearance, Washington State continued to make its mark in the record books. Defensively, WSU redshirt junior linebacker Jahad Woods registered a career-high and new bowl record of 20 tackles (career-high), previously held by Minnesota's Kim Royston in the 2009 Insight Bowl.
 
Leading the nation in passing, Wazzu's Gordon threw for 351 yards and three touchdowns to break the WSU and Pac-12 season records for touchdowns (48) and total offense (5,559 yards) with the latter previously held by Oregon's Marcus Mariota.
 

  • Stadium:

    Chase Field

  • Attendance:

    34,105

  • Offensive Player of the Game:

    Kadin Remsberg, RB, Air Force

  • Defensive Player of the Game:

    Grant Donaldson, OLB, Air Force

  • Head Coaches:

    Troy Calhoun - Air Force, Mike Leach - Washington State

  • Weather:

    48 degrees, cloudy

Quarter Scores

Scoring 1 2 3 4 F
AFA 0 17 7 7 31
WSU 0 14 0 7 21

Yardstick

AFA WSU
28 First Downs 15
69-371 Rushes - Yards 8-15
30 Passing Yards 351
4-12-1 Passes 28-42-0
2-76 Punts - Yards 1-46
2-0 Fumbles - Lost 1-1
2-20 Penalties - Yards 3-45

Individual Statistics

Rushing
AFA Kadin Remsberg 26-178-1TD, Taven Birdow 20-108-1TD, DJ Hammond III 15-62-2TD, Christian Mallard 5-17, Nolan Eriksen 1-8
WSU Max Borghi 6-27, Anthony Gordon 2-(-12)
Passing
AFA DJ Hammond III 4-12-30-1INT
WSU Anthony Gordon 28-42-351-3TD
Receiving
AFA Ben Waters 2-12, Geraud Sanders 1-10, Ben Peterson 1-8
WSU Brandon Arconado 11-167-1TD, Easop Winston 5-43, Max Borghi 5-31-1TD, Dezmon Patmon 3-22-1TD, Renard Bell 2-27, Tay Martin 1-58, Travell Harris 1-3

How They Scored

AFA WSU
7 0 DJ Hammond III 1 yd rush (Jake Koehnke kick)
7 7 Dezmon Patmon 2 yd pass from Anthony Gordon (Blake Mazza kick)
10 7 Jake Koehnke 28 yd field goal
17 7 Taven Birdow 3 yd rush (Jake Koehnke kick)
17 14 Max Borghi 5 yd pass from Anthony Gordon (Blake Mazza kick)
24 14 DJ Hammond III 7 yd rush (Jake Koehnke kick)
24 21 Brandon Arconado 13 yd pass from Anthony Gordon (Blake Mazza kick)
31 21 Kadin Remsberg 3 yd rush (Jake Koehnke kick)