Cats Undercut Cougs’ Bowl Hopes Arizona Beats WSU 24-14, Capitalizing On Turnovers
It was, indeed, another war; a marvelous defensive struggle marked by vicious hitting, hard running and helmet-to-helmet combat that had to quicken the pulse of college football purists everwhere.
And it ended like so many of the previous wars between these two schools, with Arizona holding off Washington State 24-14 in front of a Martin Stadium crowd of 32,984.
The Wildcats scratched out a 14-7 halftime lead, added a touchdown and field goal after intermssion and took advantage of three critical WSU turnovers in the final 6 minutes Saturday night to disappoint a Dad’s Day crowd that had braved near-freezing temperatures in hopes of watching WSU keep its fading bowl hopes alive.
Instead, they watched those hopes wither under the heat of Arizona’s opportunistic defense. That defense has helped Arizona take a 16-8 lead in the series, the Wildcats winning five of the last seven and three straight.
The Wildcats let Cougars running back Frank Madu loose for 143 yards and a touchdown on 25 carries, but used a fumble recovery by Chester Burnett and two pass interceptions by free safety Brandon Sanders in the closing minutes to secure the victory.
The win raised Arizona’s Pacific-10 Conference record to 2-3 and its overall mark to 4-4. WSU slipped to 2-3 and 3-5 and, with only three games remaining, dropped out the bowl picture. With one of their wins having come against Division I-AA Montana, the Cougars can no longer get the six Division I wins needed to qualify for a bowl.
“We lost out on our (bowl) goal,” coach Mike Price said. “I felt like we had a real opportunity to win and we let it slip through our fingers. The passing game didn’t get any rhythm, but I’m proud of our effort. There was no quit on the Cougars’ sideline.”
Arizona, which could get little going offensively, either, managed to grab a 21-7 lead early in the third quarter on Kevin Schmidtke’s 6-yard scoring run and answered Madu’s 13-yard TD run early in the final period with a 37-yard field goal by Johnathan Prasuhn with 3:43 left in the game.
Jon Prasuhn’s kick, which was set up by the first of Sanders’ two picks, provided the final margin of victory and helped ease the sting of a 35-yard miss just 2 minutes.
His first attempt had been set up when WSU’s Jay Dumas was stripped of the ball after fielding a punt near his own 25 and Burnett recovered at the 23. And WSU’s last chance at a comeback was snuffed out by another turnover when Cougars quarterback Chad Davis’ deflected pass to Chad Carpenter was picked off again by Sanders, this time with just more than 3 minutes remaining.
The Cats were able to run valuable time off the clock following Sanders’ second interception and the Cougars were left with only 10 seconds to work with on their final possession.
“I felt like we were very patient against a very good Washington State team,” Cats coach Dick Tomey said. “I thought this total game - offense, defense and kicking game - was one of our better games.”
Lost in all of the late-game craziness was another splendid effort by WSU’s defense, which held Arizona to 252 total yards, despite the absense of middle linebacker James Darling, suspended earlier in the week after rolling his Jeep and being charged with DUI.
Wildcats quarterback Dan White threw for 151 yards and one TD, but UA’s ground game netted only 84 yards on 48 rushing attempts.
WSU’s offense, meanwhile, managed to spring Madu loose on a consistent basis, but couldn’t finish much of what it started.
Davis completed only 15 of 38 passes for 170 yards and was booed when he took the field for WSU’s final possession. After his second interception, backup quaterback Ryan Leaf, who had been standing on the sideline, plucked off the baseball cap he was wearing, threw it against a concrete retaining wall and stormed angrily back to the bench.
If there was any loss of confidence in Davis, however, it was not voiced by offensive tackle Scott Sanderson.
“I have all the confidence in the world in Chad,” Sanderson said. “He is my man and I will back Chad Davis until the day that I die. You know it’s too bad our fans can’t be a little mature. They are kind of fair-weathered.
“That doesn’t look good on our program. There are 10 other guys on the field besides (Davis) and there were other plays in that game taht hurts us -not just the two interceptions.”
Arizona forged its halftime lead behind a bit of uncharacteristic trickery.
With the score tied 7-7 and just less than 2 minutes left in the second period, Wildcats defensive end Tedy Bruschi raced halfway across the field and put a brutal hit on Madu, who fumbled.
Rafell Jones fell on the ball at the WSU 42-yard line to set up a short field for his offense. But it looked like the Cougars would hold the Wildcats to a field goal, at worst, when they forced a fourth-and-3 from their own 35.
Arizona lined up in field-goal formation with Prasuhn poised to attempt a 52-yarder. But holder Ryan Hesson took the direct snap and shoveled the ball to upback Charles Miles, who cut upfield over right tackle for a 17-yard gain.
A 10-yard pass from White to Rodney Williams on the next play moved the ball to the WSU 8, from where White proceeded to lob a short scoring pass to Cary Taylor.
Taylor, running a fade route from the right side, made a spectacular one-handed catch just before tumbling out of bounds near the right rear corner of the end zone.
Cougars cornerback Shad Hinchen was face-guarding Taylor on the play but couldn’t prevent the score, which put the Cats up 14-7 just 29 seconds prior to intermission.
Arizona answered WSU’s first TD a 23-yard pass from Davis to Chad Carpenter - with a 1-yard scoring run by Miles just before the first quarter ended.
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