Double overtime thriller at Folsom Field ends with heartbreak, as the Beavers suffered their fourth loss of the season to the Colorado Buffaloes despite being 12-point favorites.

The Beavers have now lost two straight games after being 5-2, in their quest to become bowl eligible for the first time since 2013. Although the team looked much improved from their outing from last week against the University of California Golden Bears. The Beavers played from behind most of the game and couldn’t capitalize off big plays from the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.

The first quarter the beavers came out to a rocky start as the Colorado Buffalo offense led by freshman quarterback Brendon Lewis quickly drove down the field to the Oregon State 10-yard line. The Beaver defense was able to hold the Buffalo offense to a field goal from Colorado’s freshman kicker Cole Becker with 4 minutes elapsed in the football game. The Beavers with their first possession went three and out, punting the ball back to the Colorado offense. Then on the ensuing possession the Colorado offense scored a 42-yard touchdown courtesy of junior wide receiver Daniel Arias to put the Buffaloes up 10-0 over the Beavers.

The Beavers on their second possession of the first quarter drove down to the Colorado 14-yard line to end the first quarter. The offense wouldn’t get a score until the start of the second quarter with a powerful 14-yard touchdown run from redshirt-junior linebacker Jack Colletto cutting the Colorado lead down to three points making the score 10-7.

Colorado would try and answer the touchdown drive by the Beavers, but the Beaver defense held the Buffalo offense to a 35-yard field goal attempt that was missed. The Oregon State offense would get the ball at their own 20-yard line, but redshirt-sophomore quarterback Chance Nolan would be intercepted by Colorado’s defense giving the ball back to the Colorado offense at the Colorado 45-yard line. Both teams would not score until the end of the second quarter with both teams trading field goals to end the first half of the game.

The Beavers would get the ball to start out the third quarter down 13-10 and would end up punting to start their first possession of the second half. Colorado with their first possession would also be forced to punt quickly giving the ball back to the Beavers. On the next possession by the Beavers, they would turn the ball over on downs at the Oregon State 41-yard line giving Colorado prime field position to start their next possession.

The Buffaloes would capitalize off the turnover by the Oregon State offense by rushing down the field to the Oregon State 9-yard line, which set up a 5-yard passing touchdown to Colorado freshman wide receiver Brenden Rice. The Beavers now down 20-10 would get the ball back on their second possession and would score a 31-yard rushing touchdown from redshirt-sophomore running back Trey Lowe cutting the Colorado deficit to three making the game 20-17.

The defense invigorated by the touchdown forced Colorado to punt giving the ball back to the offense to make it a one score game. Chance Nolan threw a 27-yard touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Tre’Shaun Harrison to set up the go-ahead score mid-way through the fourth quarter making it 24-20 and it was the first time that Beavers had taken the lead in the game.

On the next Colorado possession, the defense would force another punt.  However, the beaver offense couldn’t capitalize off the opportunity and gave the ball back to Colorado with just over five minutes to go in the fourth quarter. The Buffaloes would score a 16-yard touchdown from Colorado freshman Montana Lemonious-Craig making the game 27-24 retaking the lead back from the Beavers.

The Beavers needing a score to either tie to play for overtime or win the game engineered a 2-minute drive to get into scoring range. Chance Nolan led the offense down with 32 seconds left in regulation to set up for sophomore kicker Everett Hayes to hit the game tying field goal. Everett Hayes missed the 51-yard field to send the game to overtime giving the ball back with 27 seconds left in the game.

Colorado trying to run out the clock to try and secure what looked to be a decisive victory punted the ball back to the Beavers with five seconds left in the game. Coach Jonathan Smith used the timeouts he had to his advantage to help leave some time on the clock for his team to get one last miracle play in before the end of regulation. Nolan threw a 9-yard pass to redshirt-freshman wide receiver Anthony Gould who stepped out of bounds at the 42-yard line with one second remaining on the clock.

Everett Hayes with one second in regulation drilled a 60-yard field goal making it 27-27 to force overtime. The Beavers would start out on defense to start the first overtime period, Colorado would score a 9-yard rushing touchdown from quarterback Brendan Lewis putting the Buffaloes up 34-27. Then the Beavers would get their possession with the ball in overtime and scored a 1-yard direct-snap touchdown run to redshirt-junior B.J. Baylor tying the game 34-34.

The Beavers started out on offense to begin the second overtime period with offense not being able capitalize with their possession of the football, which forced the Beavers to settle for a field goal. Everett Hayes missed the 38-yard field goal to put Oregon State up by three and with the miss Colorado needed just a field goal to win the game.  Oregon State would ultimately be outlasted by Colorado as kicker Cole Becker made the game winning field goal in the second overtime period leading the Buffaloes to a 37-34 victory over the Beavers.

Although, even with this loss the Beavers hopes of bowl game eligibility are still within reach but are harder to achieve with less room for error with just three games left in the season. The Beavers 5-4 (3-3 in conference) hope to get that elusive sixth win to help make them bowl game eligible as they return home to Reser Stadium to face the Stanford Cardinal 3-6 (2-5 in conference) on November 13^th at 2:30pm.