UNLV Rebels took the lead from Oregon State Beavers after the second half and held on long enough to keep the win, and the Beavers slid to 4-3.
This leaves the Beavers with their second loss in a row on Saturday evening.
“You never wanna blow a lead, college football is gonna go back and forth. You’re in close games so leads are gonna change, we just gotta make sure we stay on course,” said head coach Trent Bray post-game.
Both offenses came out showing this would be a competitive match.
The Beavers started with a 44-yard Flee flicker pass from junior quarterback Gevani McCoy to junior wide receiver Darrius Clemons to the five-yard line on the first drive, the Rebels stopped them on the three and forced them to settle for a field goal.
The Rebels bounced back with some trickery of their own with a double end-around play.
Senior quarterback Hajj-Malik Williams struggled through the air on their first drive but gained decent yardage with his legs. However, he fumbled on one of his runs that was picked up by his teammate.
The Rebels almost stopped the Beavers once again within the five-yard line, but a fourth down rush by Mccoy scored the touchdown.
The Beavers’ pass defense put the pressure on the Rebels pass attack after they crossed the 50, forcing them to take their second field goal, leaving the score 10-6.
With four minutes left to go in the first half, the Beavers wasted no remaining time with a 71-yard rushing touchdown by McCoy that came on the third play of their third drive of the game.
The pressure of time then switched to the Rebels with just over two minutes remaining.
They responded with a parallel play to the Beaver’s 44-yard pass with Williams able to find senior Jacob De Jesus down the right sideline for 43 yards.
The drive was capped off by Williams with his own rushing touchdown. Bringing the score to 17-13
The Beavers took their first punt with 30 seconds left in the second quarter but were blocked by the Rebel’s defense, setting them up with decent field position with 17 seconds on the Beavers 35-yard line.
They managed to get inside the 20-yard line with four seconds left with a one-handed grab on the left sideline by senior Kaleo Ballungay.
They scored a field goal to end the half with a score of 17-16
After multiple punts back and forth by both team to start the half, the Rebels created a rapid change in pace by forcing and recovering a fumble from junior running back Anthony Hankerson to put their offense in plus territory.
It led to Williams getting his second rushing touchdown of the day to put UNLV in the lead 23-17
With the game coming into the fourth quarter the Beavers defense started to give the Rebels more opportunities to drive down the field. The passing game was more in tune with the other Rebels players finally gaining yardage other than Williams by himself.
With the deficit at a two-score game, the Beavers came out with multiple attempts to create yards through the air, starting with a 22-yard pass over the middle to junior Trent Walker, but eventually leading to a fourth down.
Using his legs, McCoy managed to extend the drive by diving for the first down. The drive stalled out the very next set of downs with the Beavers losing 14 yards and having to punt.
“I have to put the blame on myself, I have to play better and put my team in positions to succeed, there were just a few times we just got behind because of mistakes on first and second down,” McCoy said.
The Rebels offense was using their snaps to run time down. The Beaver believer’s hope seemed to be dwindling but was quickly reignited by a big tackle for loss by junior Andy Alfieri and then a sack by junior Oluwaseyi Omotosho forcing them to give the ball back to the Oregon State offense.
With the ball still in the Beavers’ hands, the offense then allowed two sacks and overturned the ball on downs. The Rebels came back to score a 22-yard touchdown pass to senior Ricky White III to put the game 33-17.
Despite the score difference, Oregon State was not ready to give up just yet, getting exactly what they needed with a rushing touchdown by Hankerson after a two-minute drive and then following it up with a successful two-point conversion pass to senior Jermaine Terry II to bring it within eight points.
The Beavers’ defense followed with immediate pursuit.
Junior Jack Kane forced an interception off a pass downfield.
The Beavers drove down the field to the five-yard line, and ran out of time trying to throw it into the endzone, leaving the final score 33-25.
“I’m just proud how my guys battled tonight,” said Kane.
The Beavers next chance to rebound will come in when they take on the University of California at Berkeley on Saturday, October 26 at 1 pm.