KEVIN HUDSON | SENIOR SPORTS REPORTER
The No. 24 Ducks hung on to win the game in the final minutes Saturday, holding off the Arizona Wildcats’ second-half surge to post a 55-45 win in front of 58,369 at Autzen Stadium.
The win moved Oregon back into the national polls at No. 24 in the AP poll and No. 22 in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll.
The Ducks (8-3, 6-2 Pac-10) took a 45-17 lead into halftime on the strength of sophomore quarterback Jeremiah Masoli’s performance. He posted five touchdowns and 274 of his career-best 298 passing yards along with 87 rushing yards in the first half. He completed a career-best 21-of-26 passes to six different receivers, led by junior tight end Ed Dickson with seven catches for 84 yards. Senior wide receiver Terence Scott added six catches for 87 yards and a touchdown.
Masoli’s three rushing touchdowns tied the school single-game record for rushing touchdowns by a quarterback. The feat has been accomplished twice before, by Joey Harrington at Arizona in 2001 and Kellen Clemens at Washington State in 2004.
After leading a winning fourth-quarter drive last week against Stanford that Oregon coach Mike Bellotti compared to game-winning drives led by Oregon quarterbacks Danny O’Neal, Joey Harrington and Dennis Dixon, Masoli’s first-half performance Saturday was also among the top performances in the program’s history, Bellotti said.
“You can call it up there in the upper realms, the upper echelon,” he said “There’s no question that he played well and he was the catalyst today.”

A 39-yard field goal by junior kicker Morgan Flint on the Ducks’ first possession of the third quarter pushed the lead to 25 at 48-17. After that it was all Arizona, as the Wildcats (6-4, 4-3 Pac-10) scored four consecutive touchdowns – 28 unanswered points – to pull within three points at 48-45 with 6:38 remaining.
Tight end Rob Gronkowski accounted for the first Arizona touchdown of the streak, and had several key catches along the way, finishing with 12 catches for 143 yards and the touchdown.
“Give some credit to Rob Gronkowski. I thought he might have caught 20 passes, only 12 I guess, but it’s pretty amazing in terms of what he did,” Bellotti said. “They found him and we tried to match up different guys on him … to no avail. I think he’s an exceptional athlete.”
Arizona freshman Keola Antolin scored the next three touchdowns for the Wildcats, the last being a 13-yard jaunt to close to within three of the Ducks. He led the Wildcats in rushing on the day with 20 carries for 87 yards and four scores.
“They just executed a little better,” said junior safety T.J. Ward of Arizona’s second-half surge. “We weren’t as aggressive. They didn’t do anything different but it worked better for them.”
Oregon stalled on the following series but the defense finally held and Arizona turned the ball over on downs.
Two plays later junior LeGarrette Blount exploded through the line and dashed 40 yards down the sideline to paydirt for a 55-45 margin with 3:38 remaining.
Blount ran the ball nine times for 75 yards and the score, his 15th of the season, tying him with Saladin McCullough (1996) for Oregon’s single-season touchdown record.
Arizona had two more chances with the ball but the Ducks’ defense kept the Wildcats under wraps and out of Oregon territory to seal the win.
“In the halftime, I told the players to take one play at the time and to challenge their pride. Oregon put a lot of pressure on us,” said Arizona head coach Mike Stoops.
Three Oregon defenders notched double-digit tackles, led by senior linebacker Jerome Boyd with 13, including two tackles for a loss and a sack. Sophomore linebacker Spencer Paysinger was next with 12 tackles, two for a loss, and Ward added 10 tackles.
Nick Reed moved into a tie with Saul Patu (1999-2000) for second on the school’s all-time career sacks list with sack No. 26.5 in the game.
Had the game remained a blowout, much of the post-game chatter would likely have centered around the new uniforms, rumored but unconfirmed until the players ran out of the tunnel clad in all black.
In warm-ups, Oregon had on its standard green-and-black tops but changed between then and the introductions in a theatrical move by coaches and administrators.
“I talked to our players about all the things going on – the seniors, the new helmet, the new uniforms – that those weren’t distractions at all and we needed to make sure that they weren’t, that they were positives and I think they did that,” he said.
The excitement of the fans was palpable in the roar that went up in the stadium as the Ducks entered in their new uniforms. To Bellotti, the excitement of the players was just as tangible.
“Our kids were so excited,” he said. “They were supposed to run onto the field and form the tunnel for the seniors and instead they ran all the way down the other end and around the field just soaking it in. It was neat to see that look on their faces and neat to hear the response from the fans.”
KEVIN HUDSON
[email protected]