Fresno State senior defensive end David Perales brought intensity to the game against San Jose State on Saturday night where the Bulldogs broke their four-game losing streak in the second Mountain West (MW) game, claiming a 17-10 victory over the Spartans.
Many Bulldogs broke their career-high statistics that night. Aside from Perales setting a new career high of four quarterback sacks in a single game and five tackles for a loss (TFL), Logan Fife threw a career high of 230 passing yards for Fresno State.
This week, Perales has been named Mountain West Defensive Player of the Week, earning the first weekly honor by the conference for the Bulldogs this year. The last time a Bulldog earned this title was on Nov. 1, 2021, by Evan Williams.
“[Perales’ performance] was dominating, I thought. It seemed like he was around the quarterback all night long,” said Fresno State Football Head Coach Jeff Tedford.
This season, Perales leads the team with eight TFL and 6.5 sacks. In his Fresno State career, Perales has 17.5 sacks and is one sack away from breaking the Top 10 in Bulldog Football program history for career sacks.
Perales finished the game against the Spartans with five tackles that were all for a loss and four sacks. With this new career high, he currently has the most sacks in a game by any MW player this season.
Perales holds the second-most in a game among all Fresno State football players this season. His career-high sacks were the first by a Bulldog since 2000, and the most by any MW player since the 2019 season.
This shows great improvement for the team and a good “step up” for himself after their last four weeks, Perales said. The defense carried a majority of the game Saturday night, and Perales’ performance did not go unnoticed.
“Four is the most sacks that I’ve had in a game. It means a lot to step up for my team. We had a funky four weeks. It means a lot to get back in the win column after the tough four games we had,” Perales said.
With his career high five tackles for a loss in a single game, it is also the most in a game by any MW player in the 2022 season and the second-most in a game by any Fresno State player and any MW player in the history of the league. These TFLs are the most since Bulldog Ejiro Ederaine in 2014.
“I thought Coach [Kevin] Coyle and the defensive staff really had a great game plan for them. We gave up a long ball at the end of the half, which they never should have had in the first place. But I can’t say enough about the defensive staff and how the players executed it,” Tedford said.
