San Diego State defeated West Point Saturday in the second game of Army's two-game trip to Southern California.

The Black Knights of West Point defeated UCLA on Thursday, 45-19. Fullback Jake Lachina scored three tries and wing James Mbony scored two in that game. But Saturday was a slightly different story. SD State continued on their run of solid performances with a strong defensive effort.

"It was a close one," said SD State Head Coach Alex Lichtig. "They were the side we expected them to be - storng, powerful, and well-coached in their systems. We didn't play our game and the first half was sloppy overall."

The score was only 3-3 at halftime, but right after the break West Point scored to lead 10-3. 

"Our guys battled back. It was a physical match," said Lichtig. "We didn't get as much running in as we wanted, but credit to Army, their scramble defense was like nothing we've ever seen before."

Lichtig said the Aztecs started to get some support on their big breaks, and that led to some tries, and "once we got outside of our own zone we were able to make some things happen."

With Kurtis Schmidt getting a ton of work done around the field as a front-rower, and No. 8 Jake Jorstad bringing the physicality, SD State came back to win 22-15.

As for Army, Head Coach Matt Sherman, who used to coach San Diego State, wasn't too crestfallen about the loss.

"It was a hot one today, and overall I am pretty pleased with our trip and our performance," said Sherman. "There are areas we can learn from and improve, we also did a lot of things well. We got beat by a good team at home. I was proud of San Diego State's coaches and players - they are headed in the right direction. For us I was very pleased with our physicality and our effort on a hot day. Two games in 36 hours is tough and they fronted up."

While Army looks ahead to playing Navy and the Varsity Cup, San Diego State should rightfully feel they took another step to a DIA playoff spot.

"We don't want to get ahead of ourselves but we've in the position now, with the performances we've had, of making a run," said Lichtig.