MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Kansas State gave Arizona a rough welcome to the Big 12 on Friday night.

Even though it doesn’t count toward the conference standings.

Avery Johnson threw two touchdown passes, Dylan Edwards returned a punt 71 yards for a score and No. 14 Kansas State held No. 20 Arizona to zero in the second half in a 31-7 victory in a rare matchup between new Big 12 rivals.

The loss ended Arizona’s nine-game winning streak, the longest streak in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

“I don’t know what we’re trying to prove to everybody. We’re trying to prove to ourselves that we can keep this up and play at a high level,” Kansas State coach Chris Klieman said. “That was a great week of preparation. Now we’ve got to do it again.”

The schools had agreed to the game before Arizona left the Pac-12 for the Big 12. With neither team able to find a replacement opponent, Kansas State and Arizona held the game, but without it counting toward the league title race.

Good news for Arizona.

Johnson finished with 156 yards passing and 110 yards rushing, and DJ Giddens added 86 yards rushing and a score, leading Kansas State (3-0) to bounce back from a lackluster road loss to Tulane with a convincing win over the Desert Wildcats.

“Everybody wanted to get back on the field,” said Jayce Brown, who had three catches for 60 yards. “We wanted to show everybody what we could do.”

Noah Fifita had 268 yards passing for Arizona (2-1) with an interception. Tetairoa McMillan had 11 catches for 138 yards, but the potential first-round NFL draft pick was unable to convert any of those grabs into a big play or touchdown.

“Those guys just play good football,” Arizona coach Brent Brennan said. “They tackle well. They cover well, they do a good job. I give that staff a lot of credit. They’ve got a well-coached football team, their kids play really hard. They’re impressive.”

The teams opened the game with tough, time-consuming touchdown drives, but otherwise the first 30 minutes were plagued by penalties, mental lapses and baffling mistakes from two teams trying to make a statement.

Arizona couldn’t cover a bad punt that Edwards returned untouched for a touchdown. On the next drive, Fifita threw lazily over the middle into double coverage and was intercepted by Kansas State’s Keenan Garber in the end zone.

Johnson made perhaps the most embarrassing blunder of all. He was sacked at the Arizona 19 with 24 seconds left in the first half. On the next play, all the freshman had to do was step out of bounds to stop the clock and bring in the field-goal team, but he instead turned around and ran the other way, running out the clock without a chance for a try.

“It’s all my fault at the end of the first half,” Klieman said. “I should have taken a timeout. That’s not the boy’s fault.”

Kansas State still led 14-7 at halftime and the mistake ultimately didn’t matter.

The fleet-footed Johnson began throwing in the second half, leading his team to back-to-back TD drives. The first included a 48-yard pass to Jayce Brown on third-and-12, setting up Johnson’s scoring toss to Brayden Loftin. The next included a 21-yard toss to Loftin before Giddens plowed into the end zone to give Kansas State a 28-7 lead.

Kansas State stopped Arizona on fourth down a few minutes later and just had to play out the fourth quarter.

“(Johnson) is a pretty good player, and he stepped up tonight when we needed him,” Klieman said. “He played some really good football and was really calm, and made some plays with his feet. Made some plays with his legs. That was a fun performance to watch.”

The takeaway meal

Arizona might have done better if it hadn’t repeatedly hurt itself with flags. It committed 30 yards of penalties on a single drive in the first half and finished with nine penalties for 74 yards in the game.

Kansas State had something to prove after allowing Tulane to throw for 342 yards and collect 491 total yards in last week’s 34-27 comeback win. The Wildcats held Arizona to 324 yards of total offense on Friday night.

Next

Arizona: On September 28, the Wildcats play their first real Big 12 game against number 12 Utah.

Kansas State: Next Saturday night at BYU.

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