Utah’s bowl winning streak hits seven

SAN DIEGO — Invite the Utah Utes to a bowl game and the odds are pretty good they’re going to win.

Brian Johnson passed for one touchdown and ran for another, and Utah opened the college bowl season with a wild 35-32 victory over the Navy Midshipmen in the Poinsettia Bowl on Thursday night.

It was Utah’s seventh straight bowl victory dating to 1999.

“Seven straight bowl wins — not a lot of people can say that,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. “I tell you what, our seniors are 5-0. Fifth-year seniors, five bowl games, five rings. Unbelievable, the legacy they left behind.”

Boston College has won seven straight bowls going into its matchup against Michigan State in the Champs Sports Bowl next Friday.

Running back Darrell Mack, who grew up in the San Diego area, scored the first and last touchdowns for Utah (9-4), which won for the eighth time in nine games.

The loss spoiled the head coaching debut of Navy’s Ken Niumatalolo, who was promoted from assistant head coach and offensive line coach after Paul Johnson left for Georgia Tech.

Navy (8-5) had its four-game winning streak snapped.

“More than anything, I feel for our seniors,” Niumatalolo said. “I’ll coach again.”

The teams combined for 50 points in the second half, and the game came down to a crazy final minute.

Navy pulled to within 35-32 on Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada’s 58-yard pass to Zerbin Singleton with 57 seconds left.

Singleton then recovered an onside kick at the 42, but Kaheaku-Enhada was intercepted by safety Joe Dale on the second play of the drive to seal Utah’s victory. Dale had a team-high 12 tackles.

There was a questionable call late in the game.

With his Utes leading 28-25, Jerome Brooks caught a 3-yard pass from Johnson and lost the ball as he was diving for the corner of the end zone. The ball hit the pylon and went out of bounds. Officials could have ruled it a touchback for Navy, but after a review, the call on the field stood.

On the next play, Mack was stuffed for no gain on fourth-and-goal from the 1.

On the ensuing possession, Navy ended up getting stopped on fourth-and-2 from its 9.

Afterward, the officials released a statement saying a mistake was made, and the play should have been ruled a touchback, with Navy getting the ball at its 20.

Johnson was 20-for-25 passing for 226 yards, with one interception. He ran 11 times for 69 yards, including a 19-yard TD in the fourth quarter.

Johnson completed 11 straight passes spanning the middle quarters. He expertly ran Utah’s spread-option offense in leading the Utes back from a 17-7 deficit by going 9-for-9 for 130 yards in the third quarter.