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By DOUG ALDEN AP Sports Writer
PROVO, Utah (AP) -- Max Hall passed for 293 yards and two touchdowns and Brigham Young ended Air Force's unbeaten start with a 31-6 win on Saturday, the Falcons' first loss under new coach Troy Calhoun.
Harvey Unga ran for 111 yards and caught a touchdown pass and Manase Tonga scored on two short runs for the Cougars (2-2, 1-0 Mountain West).
BYU won its fourth straight against the Falcons (3-1, 2-1), who were trying to open the MWC season by beating the last three conference champions. Air Force already had wins over Utah and TCU, but was quickly overwhelmed by the defending champion Cougars.
Air Force finished with 231 yards of offense and was just 3-for-13 on third downs.
Shaun Carney passed for 98 yards and scored Air Force's only touchdown on an 8-yard option run late in the third quarter after BYU was up 24-0.
BYU hasn't lost a conference game since Nov. 19, 2005 against rival Utah, which was also the last time the Cougars lost at home.
After falling behind the previous two weeks in losses to UCLA and Tulsa, BYU took the lead less than 4 minutes into the game Saturday and just kept building on it.
The Cougars led 17-0 at halftime, then in the third quarter caught the Falcons by surprise on fourth-and-9 from the 29. Rather than attempting a long field goal, the Cougars went for it and Hall threw a perfect sideline pass to Unga out of the backfield for a touchdown with 10:54 left in the third.
Air Force didn't score until Carney's 8-yard run with 3:31 left in the third cut BYU's lead to 24-6. The Falcons went for two and the Cougars snuffed the option this time.
Tonga added a 2-yard touchdown run early in the fourth to give BYU a 31-6 lead.
Air Force's defense was holding opponents to an average of 294 yards and fewer than 11 points through the first three games. BYU finished with 452 yards as Hall completed 23 of 33 passes and the Cougars ran 44 times for 159 yards.
BYU led 17-0 at halftime on a 1-yard run by Tonga in the first quarter, a 9-yard pass from Hall to Matt Allen in the second and a 42-yard field goal by Mitch Payne.
Quinn Gooch set up the first touchdown with an interception and 1-yard return to the Air Force 43-yard line on the opening possession. The Cougars needed just six plays to get to the end zone and Tonga got the ball on five of them.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) APTV-09-22-07 1650MDT
