The #14 Oregon State Beavers were defeated by the #21 Washington State Cougars 38-35 on Saturday evening in Pullman, Washington
In a game that started with Washington State quarterback Cam Ward launching a 63-yard touchdown in the opening minute of the game, the Beavers were unable to complete a comeback.
Both teams entered the game with identical 3-0 records, the Beavers having won 10 of their 11 previous games. Since October 8, 2022, OSU’s two losses are at Washington University and Washington State.
Oregon State kept the game close for much of the contest, getting on the board with 3:48 left in the first quarter when Deshaun Fenwick scored a 38-yard rushing touchdown. That brought the score 14-7 in favor of WSU.
The Beaver defense was able to force and recover two fumbles in the first half, collected by Jermod McCoy and Cory Stover, respectively.
Damien Martinez, who came into the contest sporting the nation’s longest streak of consecutive regular-season games with more than 100 rushing yards, saw his streak snapped at the hands of the Cougars. Teammate Deshaun Fenwick ran in three scores for the Beavs.
Washington State receiver Josh Kelly notched 3 touchdowns on the day, finishing with 8 catches for 159 yards. Ward went 28 of 34 for 404 yards and 4 touchdown passes; Ward also had a one-yard touchdown run.
For the Beavers, Fenwick had 11 carries for 101 yards and 3 touchdowns while Martinez posted a 17 carries and finished with 81 yards rushing.
The deciding points may have come at the end of the first half when the Cougars extended their 7-point lead to two touchdowns as Ward threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Kelly with 10 seconds remaining.
The Beavers received the ball to begin the second half but were unable to capitalize, turning the ball over on downs with Uiagalelei’s pass attempt falling incomplete.
The Beavers kept themselves in the game, however, by stopping the Cougars from gaining any yards on the ensuing possession Washington State’s Dean Janikowski missed a 51-yard field goal.
Down 14-35, Oregon State cut the lead to two touchdowns with a 26-yard TD run from Uiagalelei with 14:14 left in the game. Washington State responded with a nine-play 48-yard drive capped by a 44-yard field that bounced off the left upright and through the posts to make it 38-21 on the scoreboard.
OSU responded by embarking on a nine-play drive which culminated with Fenwick recording his third touchdown of the day in a 4-yard romp into the end zone.
Unable to recover an onside kick with 6:18 remaining, the Beavers forced Washington State to punt and scored on a five-yard pass from Uiagalelei to Jack Velling to cut the lead to 35-38.
For the game, Oregon State converted 6-14 third downs while putting up 25 first downs; the Cougars converted 5 of 9 and logged 26 first downs of their own.
The Cougars had 422 yards passing and 531 yards of total offense compared to Oregon State’s 440 yards of offense and 242 yards rushing.
The Beavers fell to 3-1, including 0-1 in Pac-12 play while Washington State improved to 4-0 with a 1-0 record in conference play.
The Beavers next take on #11 Utah in Corvallis on Friday, September 29 at 6:00 P.M. Washington State will take an off week before playing again on October 7 at UCLA.
