Tricks Treat Huskies To A Win Over Osu Onside Kicks, Forced Fumbles Carry UW To 26-16 Victory

They couldn’t stop Oregon State quarterback Tim Alexander, so the Washington Huskies resorted to a little trickery and sleight of hand Saturday to beat back the Beavers.

Washington played keep-away in the first three quarters and takeaway in the fourth quarter to score a 26-16 victory before 32,989 spectators at Parker Stadium.

The trickery came by way of a couple of onside kicks - one planned, the other a happy confluence of elements for the Huskies. Those recoveries enabled them to keep the ball away from the quick and slippery Alexander for large chunks of time in the second and third quarters.

The sleight of hand belonged to UW cornerback Reggie Reser, who cleverly extracted the ball and a touchdown from the hands of OSU halfback Cameron Reynolds with 3 minutes remaining on a remarkable open-field play when the Beavers had every bit of the game’s momentum.

It was one of five turnovers on the day for Oregon State, including three of them inside the Washington 5-yard line in the final 5 minutes.

“It started reminding me of last week’s game,” Reser said, alluding to the 21-13 victory over Army, which ended with the Cadets at the 1-yard line when time ran out.

This time, the Huskies shook off a brief rocky start and put together their best first half of the season in taking a 17-0 lead.

Oregon State closed to within 17-10 in the third quarter, and Washington regained and sustained at least a 10-point advantage through the fourth quarter.

“It was like we were trying to win, then, ‘No, we’ll let them back in it,”’ said Reser, who ended the game by intercepting a pass by Alexander in the end zone. “Then, ‘We want to win.’ Then, ‘No, we’ll let them win it.”’

In the end, though, the Huskies won it, pushing their record to 3-1 for the season. Most important, they’re 2-0 in the Pacific-10 Conference, keeping pace with 2-0 USC, while Washington State and Stanford remain 1-0 as the only other teams with perfect league records.

“We’re winning games,” Reser said. “We’re not doing good in the Pac-10 stats and all that, but we’re winning games. We’re a team trying to find ourselves, and when we find ourselves, we’ll be all right. If we can put four quarters together, we can be one of the top-10 teams.”

Ordinarily, top-10 teams haven’t had to stage fourth-quarter comebacks to beat teams like Arizona State and Army, or allowed Oregon State 488 yards of total offense. And those have been Washington’s good games.

But the 18th-ranked Huskies are likely to march into the top-15 with the results of today’s votes in the weekly media and coaches’ Top-25 polls. And with Notre Dame visiting Husky Stadium on Saturday, they will have a chance to make up for their pratfall against Ohio State in the other “national” game they have played so far (a 30-20 defeat).

Saturday, Washington left the Beavers with the same impression that Arizona State and Army had when the clock ran out: That they beat themselves with monumental mistakes.

That’s just fine with Jim Lambright, whose team is 3-1 for the third time in his three years as Washington coach.

“I’m very pleased with the fact that our offense came out and did what we practiced this week,” he said. “We put 17 points on the board in the first half and gave ourselves a chance.”

The 1-4 Beavers’ only victory came in the season opener against Idaho.

The Washington offense managed a so-so 369 yards, but the Huskies turned the ball over just once and was at its best on third down, converting 8 of 13 into first downs. That was critical in keeping the ball away from Alexander. In his first start, the redshirt freshman finished with 322 yards of total offense, 182 on the ground and 140 through the air.

Washington 26, OSU 16

Washington 7 10 6 3 - 26

Oregon St. 0 3 7 6 - 16

Wash-Thomas 2 run (Wales kick)

Wash-FG Wales 25

Wash-Thomas 1 run (Wales kick) OSUFG Lund 21 OSUAlexander 32 run (Lund kick)

Wash-Coleman 12 pass from Huard (kick failed)

Wash-FG Wales 27 OSUAlexander 1 run (run failed)

A-32,989

Wash OSU First downs 19 23 Rushes-yards 52-204 54-360 Passing 165 140 Return yards 60 29 Comp-Att-Int 12-23-0 7-16-2 Punts 7-40 3-34 Fumbles-lost 1-1 3-3 Penalties-yards 7-84 5-36 Time of possession 37:32 22:28

RUSHINGWashington, Neal 17-78, Thomas 18-59, Shehee 11-38, Huard 4-19, Keiaho 2-10. Oregon St., Alexander 24-182, Stewart 8-79, Olford 7-38, Reynolds 8-27, Thomas 7-34.

PASSINGWashington, Huard 12-21-0-165, Fortney 0-2-0-0. Oregon St., Alexander 7-16-2-140.

RECEIVINGWashington, Coleman 5-55, Janoski 4-35, Conwell 2-61, DeSaussure 1-14. Oregon St., Blackwell 4-52, Reynolds 1-51, Olford 1-23, Cross 1-14.