The Oregon State Beavers became the first visiting team in 10 years to win the Civil War Saturday, with a 38-31 double-overtime victory over the Oregon Ducks in front of 59,050 at Autzen Stadium.
Oregon State appeared to have the game won in regulation, moving the ball into position for an Alexis Serna 35-yard field goal attempt with just more than one minute left in regulation and the game tied 28-28. Oregon cornerback Walter Thurmond III came off the edge to block the kick, and the ball was recovered by Jairus Byrd on the Oregon 36 yard line with one minute remaining.
Freshman quarterback Justin Roper completed passes to Garren Strong, Derrick Jones and Jaison Williams to move the ball to the Oregon State 36 yard line with less than 30 seconds remaining. Junior place kicker Matt Evensen had his 53-yard field goal attempt sail wide left, but a personal foul penalty on the Beavers for leaping off of one of their own players set the Ducks up for a second chance at the 21 yard line.
On first and 10, with 20 seconds left in the game, Roper snapped the ball and fell to the ground in the middle of the field to center the ball for the possible game-winning 40 yard field goal attempt. The kicking unit rushed onto the field and Evensen got his kick off just in time, but the kick fell far short and the game went to overtime.
Oregon coach Mike Bellotti said that his intent was to have Roper spike the ball on second down to give the kicking unit time to set up and kick, but miscommunication on the sideline caused the confusion that led to the hurried field goal attempt.
“We were clearly going to spike it, but we had some confusion,” said Bellotti. “There was a miscommunication on the sidelines in terms of what we were doing.”
The teams would trade field goals in the first overtime period to send it to double overtime tied 31-31. On the first play of the second overtime, Beaver freshman wide receiver James Rodgers took the handoff from quarterback Lyle Moevao and scampered around the right end for a 25-yard touchdown to make the game 38-31. Oregon was stopped on 4th and 1 in their overtime opportunity and the Beaver fans and players rushed the field in celebration.
“It’s hard to be happy in a loss, but I’m proud of the way we competed,” said Bellotti. “I think there were very few people out there, outside of our team, that believed in our team. Our kids did a tremendous job, and they deserved to win today.”
Jonathan Stewart, despite being hobbled by turf toe, set a new career high for rushing attempts with 39 in the game. He also passed Saladin McCullough’s single-season rushing mark of 1,343 yards with a 19-yard run in the first quarter to reach 1,359 yards for the season. Stewart finished with 163 yards for the new Oregon single-season record of 1,469 yards.
“He was hurting before the game even started, but he gutted it out and did everything we asked him to,” said Bellotti of Stewart. “He battled, and I’m very proud of him.”
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