A Delicious Apple Cougars Lose In Unforgettable Clash Washington 33, Washington State 30
All that is wonderful, right and exciting about college football surfaced under the dying daylight in Husky Stadium Saturday afternoon as Washington State and Washington staged an Apple Cup classic.
By the time it had ended, which was all too soon, the fact that the 22nd-ranked Huskies had beaten the Cougars 33-30 on John Wales’ 21-yard field goal with a little more than a minute left, hardly seemed relevant.
Neither did the fact that the victory, coupled with Southern California’s 24-20 loss to UCLA, earned UW a share of the Pacific-10 Conference title with a 6-1-1 record.
No, this game was about the players and all of the magnificent things they did to entertain a hearty sellout crowd of 74,144 that braved gusty first-half winds and persistent second-half rains in tribute to the spectacle unfolding before it.
The hitting was wince-inducing, the effort breath-taking.
The lead flip-flopped three times, the game was tied with a little more than 2 minutes left.
Heroes roamed everywhere, young players matured in a matter of 3 short hours and learned first-hand about the intensity of this rivalry. Warriors went down. Sadly, some didn’t return, but most did.
And when the final second ticked off the clock with Ryan Leaf’s “Hail-Mary” heave falling harmlessly from the sky, WSU players slumped in exhaustion and despair while Washington celebrated the return of the Apple Cup trophy to its campus.
“I think Cougar and Husky fans got their money’s worth today,” WSU coach Mike Price said while trying, but failing, to hide the disappointment of a season-ending six-game losing streak that left his Cougars 2-6 in the Pac-10 and 3-8 overall. “I thought that was one of the more courageous efforts we’ve had or that I’ve been associated with.
“We left everything we had on the football field. We brought nothing back into the locker room with us.”
UW coach Jim Lambright was equally impressed with his team’s effort, which left his Huskies 7-3-1 overall and headed for the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas.
“The captains and seniors certainly deserve all the highlighting for having ram-rodded this season the way they have and just sticking in there,” Lambright said. “It couldn’t be more inspirational, because you have so many wonderful heroes that are involved.”
There was tailback Rashaan Shehee slicing up WSU’s defense for 212 yards and three TDs, including an 85-yarder on the second play of the second half.
There was split end Dave Janoski killing WSU with a stunning 42-yard TD reception between a pair of well-positioned defenders.
There was quarterback Damon Huard throwing for 276 yards and surpassing Sonny Sixkiller as UW’s career passing leader.
There was Jerome Pathon, a backup split end, returning a kick 30 yards to help set up a short field for the Huskies’ final scoring drive and then hauling in a critical 14-yard pass from Huard to keep that drive alive.
And there was Wales, a much-maligned placekicker, who grandly redeemed himself with a 38-yard field goal in the third quarter and his game-winner in the fourth.
For WSU there was Leaf, a redshirt freshman, showing the poise of a fifth-year senior while running for two TDs, throwing for 291 yards and another score and directing his battered offense on an 80-yard scoring drive that tied it at 30 with 2:17 left.
“I’m sure from the spectators’ point of view, it was a great game to watch, exciting right down to the last play,” said Cougars offensive tackle Scott Sanderson. “We played in spired football today. We had a lot of guys play hurt and play through the pain. That says a lot about our team’s character.”
A couple of WSU veterans who couldn’t play through the pain were linebacker and co-captain Chris Hayes and offensive tackle John Scukanec. Hayes went as hard as he could for as long as he could on a sprained ankle before turning things over to sophomore Brandon Moore, who responded with seven tackles and an acrobatic interception along the sidelines. Scukanec left with an ankle injury early in the second and was replaced by Ryan McShane.
And after Cougars running back Frank Madu was ejected from the game early in the third quarter for throwing a punch at a UW defender, Miguel Meriwether came on to rush for the majority of his 79 yards and the Cougars’ final touchdown.
Yet it was Leaf, who emerged again as the brightest star on WSU’s horizon. The 6-foot-6, 228-pounder took every snap and kept junior Chad Davis, who had started 21 consecutive games until being benched two weeks ago because of a bad attitude, firmly planted on the sidelines next to Price.
He took WSU on two long first-half scoring drives, capping the first with a 1-yard dive over right guard and the second with a 12-yard burst up the middle on a surprise sneak.
He later answered Shehee’s long scoring run and Wales’ first field goal with a 30-yard touchdown pass to Kearney Adams late in the third.
Leaf’s throw gave the Cougars a 22-15 lead, but Janoski wiped that out early in the final period by going up between WSU cornerback Brian Walker and strong safety Duane Stewart to pull down Huard’s 42-yard rainbow throw.
Shehee scored on a 4-yard run on WSU’s next possession to put UW up 30-22, but Leaf wasn’t finished. With the help of a 44-yard run by Meriwether, he drove WSU 80 yards for a touchdown and then tied the game at 30 with a bullet PAT past to Chad Carpenter with 2:17 left.
And after Wales’ game-winning field goal, he managed to move his team out close to mid-field before his final deep desperation throw fell incomplete as time expired.
“I don’t know if I’ve seen a better performance by a freshman quarterback in this stadium,” Price said of Leaf, who stood in against a strong UW pass rush and completed 22 of 33. “He did a great job.”
“I had a great time out there,” Leaf said. “It was really exciting… . I really wanted to play well for the seniors and I’m sorry they couldn’t go out with a win - that was my main objective.
“It was a big game, but it’ll be even bigger the next three years.”
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