For the second year in a row the No. 13 Oregon State Beavers football team (8-4, 6-3 Pacific-10) came up one game short of earning themselves a share of the Pac-10 Conference title and a trip to the Rose Bowl. And for the second straight year, it was the Oregon Ducks celebrating their Civil War victory instead of OSU.
But unlike last year’s 65-38 blowout at Reser Stadium, the Beavers came up just four points short as they fell 37-33 at Autzen Stadium last night.
Oregon State will now have to play the waiting game to see what’s in store for the postseason, while the No. 7 Oregon Ducks earned a trip to Pasadena, Calif., and their first Rose Bowl appearance since 1995.
“There’s not anything you can say that really is helpful at this time,” said Oregon State head coach Mike Riley. “When there’s the kind of commitment that our team made this year, it’s going to hurt.”
Sophomore running back Jacquizz Rodgers got the Beavers on the board first with a touchdown run from one yard out, giving him the OSU single-season record with his 20th score of the year. OSU struggled to reach the end zone for the rest of the quarter following Rodgers’ score, and was forced to settle for three Justin Kahut field goals before the half
was over.
But with 14 seconds left in the second quarter, senior quarterback Sean Canfield hit junior wide receiver James Rodgers on a 28-yard touchdown strike over the middle to give OSU the 23-21 lead heading into intermission.
Canfield came out firing again at the start of the third quarter, leading the Beavers on an 11-play, 75-yard drive that resulted in nine-yard touchdown catch by Casey Kjos.
“I felt great because we scored right before the half and right coming out,” Riley said. “But that didn’t detour them from what they needed to do.”
Canfield continue to show why he’s the leading passer in the Pac-10, finishing the game with 306 yards and two touchdowns on 24-of-36 passing. His favorite target on the year, James Rodgers, finished with 10 receptions for 139 yards and one touchdown.
“It was a hard-fought football game,” Canfield said. “We were in it all the way till the end.”
With just over six minutes to play in the fourth, Riley elected to go for it on fourth-and-15 at the Oregon 27-yard line, but Canfield’s pass to James Rodgers came up just short and fell to the ground in the front corner of the end zone, giving the ball back to the Ducks for good.
“That fourth-and-15, I thought we could’ve had that,” Canfield said. “We were all confident we were going get it. We have a lot of playmakers on offense and we thought it was the right decision. We just couldn’t get it done.”
Defensively, Oregon State’s top-ranked run defense in the Pac-10 was unable to slow Oregon’s LaMichael James as he ran for 166 yards and three touchdowns on 25 carries.
“LaMichael played his butt off today,” OSU linebacker Keith Pankey said. “He had a great game … The kid’s a player. I think he’s going to represent the Pac-10 well in the Rose Bowl.”
But one of the biggest losses of the day for the Beavers came early in the second half when cornerback Tim Clark was carted off the field with a fractured right leg. Clark finished the game with two tackles.
There was no time for dwelling on the loss after the game for a well-composed Pankey.
“There’s a ton of what-ifs, a ton of things we could’ve done better, but at the same time I applaud our guys,” he said. “We played our hearts out today, and Oregon, you know, they’re the better team today and they’re going to represent the Pac-10 well in the Rose Bowl.”
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OSU falls short for second straight year
Daily Emerald
December 3, 2009
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