Team captain Sean Parker intercepted one pass and broke up three more in leading the Huskies past Oregon State, 20-17. Photo by Saskia Capell
For the second time in exactly a month, the Washington football team met an undefeated, top-10 conference foe at the not-so-friendly confines of CenturyLink Field with a rather rude welcome.
For the second time in exactly a month, the Washington football team met an undefeated, top-10 conference foe at the not-so-friendly confines of CenturyLink Field with a rather rude welcome.
Sept. 27, it was then-No. 8 Stanford that the Huskies knocked off in a low-scoring defensive duel. Saturday, led by four interceptions and a final fourth-quarter stand from the UW defense, it was the No. 7 Oregon State Beavers whom the Huskies victimized.
Rarely does history repeat itself so quickly.
The UW defense bent quite a bit in the second half, allowing more than 300 total yards in the final 30 minutes, but never broke. Meanwhile, Keith Price mustered just enough offense via a pair of fourth-quarter scoring drives to help the Huskies (4-4, 2-3 Pac-12) nose past the Beavers (6-1, 4-1), 20-17, in front of an announced crowd of 60,482.
“It felt like a real slugfest,” said cornerback Marcus Peters, who broke up three passes and notched perhaps the most crucial of the UW’s quartet of interceptions. “And we came out with a knockout punch at the end.”
That knockout punch came in the game’s closing seconds, shortly after backup quarterback Cody Vaz — who entered the game after Sean Mannion was picked off for the fourth time — drove the Beavers down the field to the 38-yard line, nearly within striking distance of a game-tying field goal attempt.
But Vaz threw incompletions on both first and second down, and UW defensive end Talia Crichton sacked the Beaver quarterback on the next play to push Oregon State even further out of scoring position and seal the win for the Huskies.
One week after allowing 52 points in the desert, the UW got back to winning with defense.
This marks the fourth time in program history the Huskies have defeated two top-10 teams in the same season.
“I thought our kids showed a great deal of resiliency,” head coach Steve Sarkisian said. “It was a tremendous amount of adversity that they were faced with in the game, and they continued to show the mental and physical toughness that teams need to possess to beat a top-10 team.”
Chief among that adversity was Oregon State’s explosive third quarter, when the Beavers accumulated more than 200 yards of offense and tied the game at 10 after being shut out in the first half.
As was the case all evening, it was the UW defense — specifically its secondary — that allowed the Huskies to hang on.
At the start of the fourth quarter, it was Peters’ interception and subsequent 26-yard return that left the Huskies with only 30 yards between them and the end zone. On his first snap of the drive, Price found Kasen Williams down the sideline for 29 yards, and running back Bishop Sankey ran it in the next play to put the UW ahead 17-10.
The Huskies wouldn’t have been in position to preserve the victory late, however, if it hadn’t been for what may very well have been their best first half of the season.
The UW took advantage of rainy first-quarter conditions to begin establishing its running game, handing the ball off to Sankey — who finished with 92 yards and two scores on 25 carries — or freshman Kendyl Taylor on eight of the team’s first nine snaps. That included the opening six plays of the UW’s first scoring drive, a 12-play effort capped by Travis Coons with a 45-yard field goal, his season and career long.
Oregon State promptly responded with a lengthy drive of its own, but safety Sean Parker ended it with his first critical play of the opening half, a diving interception of an underthrown ball in the end zone.
After the Husky offense stalled, Parker made another mammoth play on the first snap of the ensuing Beaver drive, flattening wide receiver Markus Wheaton and, in the process, deflecting the ball into the waiting hands of safety Justin Glenn. Wheaton left the game and didn’t return due to concussion-like symptoms.
Two possessions later, the Huskies made it 10-0 with a one-yard Sankey touchdown run on fourth and goal, a lead they carried into the half.
“[Sarkisian said] we had to go out there and believe that we can succeed,” defensive tackle Semisi Tokolahi said of the UW’s halftime motivation. “We had to lock on with our jobs and our responsibilities. We had to finish strong.”
The Huskies were embarrassed after last week’s 35-point loss to Arizona. They were angry. They wanted to make sure it didn’t happen again.
Saturday against Oregon State, they did exactly that and gave themselves a potentially critical spark going into the final third of the regular season, when the UW will be fighting for bowl positioning.
“Pride is a powerful thing,” Sarkisian said. “You earn pride; it’s not given. And we earned it tonight.”
Reach Sports Editor Kevin Dowd at sports@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @KevinDowd
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