SAN JOSE — After a midfield celebration with the Valley Trophy, the spoils of beating Fresno State, the San Jose State Spartans took the party to their locker room. Amid loud music and gatorade showers was a celebration of a gritty, character-testing game and season.

“I think there’s a cleanup that needs to be done in there,” head coach Brent Brennan said, referring to the players’ area. “It’s so good to see that joy on their face after the three weeks of crushing losses that were so close and so hard-fought.”

Their bowl hopes dashed a week ago in a 38-35 loss to Nevada-Las Vegas — this came on the heels of a 42-40 loss to Hawaii — the Spartans overcame a 14-point deficit and beat Fresno State 17-16 with an 87-yard drive on their final possession.

“I can’t imagine how I’d feel if we lost this game,” said senior quarterback Josh Love, who bounced back from a four-interception game at Las Vegas with a 290-yard passing day. “This is a day I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”

Here are three takeaways from the victory that closed the books on a 5-7 season for the Spartans, their best since 2015.

Sending seniors off in style

For many San Jose State seniors, their college football careers have been a trying journey.

Just ask Love, who walked on in his freshman season, saw inconsistent playing time through his first three seasons and experienced just three wins in two years.

But in their final game donning blue and gold in San Jose, they experienced one last hurrah. One final moment of triumph as a team. One more win.

“We’ve been through a lot these past couple years,” senior linebacker Ethan Aguayo said. “To end it like we did tonight, I couldn’t have imagined a better ending.”

Players such as Aguayo, who have been at San Jose State for at least the last three years, remember what it felt like when the Bulldogs marched into CEFCU Stadium to snatch the Valley Trophy in 2017. A 27-10 loss at the hands of such a despised rival hurt, especially with a new head coach trying to keep a program afloat.

But with a gritty effort, fueled by a stingy second-half performance by its defense and a late game-winning drive, San Jose State put its seniors back on top.

“I’m just doing it for the senior class,” said senior running back DeJon Packer said, whose final two carries covered 28 and 10 yards and put SJSU in the endzone and in the lead for the first time all night. “That was the way that it was supposed to end.”

Defense sets the stage for comeback

In less than half of a quarter, the SJSU defense allowed two touchdowns. But a lock-down performance in the second half — Fresno State had just 103 yards after halftime — was essential to the comeback.

“At halftime we just talked about believing in each other and fighting for each other,” Brennan said. “I felt like we tackled way better in the second half … There were a lot of great moments for our defense out there.”

After the two early touchdowns, the San Jose State defense forced a total of eight punts, two turnovers on downs and an interception. SJSU held the Bulldogs to 1-for-12 on third down and 0-for-2 on fourth down, including a goal-line stand early in the third quarter.

Although San Jose State gave up 188 yards on the ground — its 10th game this season allowing at least 150 yards rushing — only 73 came in the second as Fresno State was limited to just 3.3 yards per carry.

Linebacker Tysyn Parker led San Jose State with 12 tackles in his second double-digit effort of the year. Aguayo had eight tackles, making him the first SJSU player since 2010 to record at least 100 tackles in back-to-back seasons. Aguayo also made a game-sealing play, breaking up a fourth-down pass on Fresno State’s final snap.

A drive for the ages

San Jose State’s offense had struggled most of the night.

Aside from two drives that yielded a 22-yard field goal and a one-yard rushing touchdown from Love, the Spartans punted five times and turned the ball over twice on downs.

But in their final possession of the night, the Spartans put together their most impressive sequence of the game — a seven-play, 87-yard drive that ended with Packer reaching the end zone on a 10-yard scamper.

“Knowing what we went through, I knew I didn’t want to go down,” Packer said. “We needed to finish off the right way. We’ve been through too much and worked too hard.”

The drive began with a first down on a six-yard run from freshman running back Kairee Robinson, who finished the game with 41 yards on seven carries. But on the ensuing play, a holding penalty put the Spartans in a 1st-and-25 situation.

Gaining the yards back with a pair of screen passes, SJSU faced 3rd-and-9 at their own 33-yard line. That’s when junior wide receiver Tre Walker made the play of the game on a 29-yard fade route. Breaking away from his defender nearly 30 yards down field, Walker stretched out to make a finger-tip catch.

“Those are hard plays to make,” Brennan said. “For Josh [Love] to have that confidence in Tre [Walker] like, ‘hey, I’m putting this thing up and he’s going to make it,” and he did. That’s the kind of chemistry they’ve built.”

Walker, who finished with a game-high 132 receiving yards, set the Spartans up on the Bulldogs’ 38-yard line. It paved the way for two runs from Packer, who gained the final 38 yards needed to put SJSU ahead with 2:11 to play in the fourth quarter.

SJSU entered Saturday with the NCAA’s sixth-worst rushing attack, averaging merely 87.4 yards per game and ironically, it was the ground game that won them a ball game.

“It feels really good knowing that we were able to do it that way,” Packer said. “We knew what we had. We knew the potential that we could reach … We knew that we could do that all along.”