SEATTLE (AP) — Earlier than Rome Odunze left the room, he wished to share a message about his Washington teammate that was sitting behind the microphones.
“You’re wanting on the Heisman Trophy winner proper there,” Odunze shouted within the course of his quarterback Michael Penix Jr.
Whereas voting remains to be months away, Penix’s Heisman second might have come Saturday on the most important stage for a pair of long-time Pacific Northwest rivals.
Penix hit Odunze on an 18-yard landing go with 1:38 remaining after one other debatable fourth-down determination by Oregon, and Camden Lewis missed a 43-yard discipline objective try on the ultimate play as No. 7 Washington held off No. 8 Oregon 36-33 in one other wild chapter to their heated rivalry.
The a hundred and fifteenth matchup between the rivals was the primary that featured each groups ranked within the high 10, together with a pair quarterbacks in Penix and Bo Nix who ought to contend for honor as the very best participant in school.
And it lived as much as the hype as maybe the most important ever between the foes. There have been offensive fireworks, wild momentum swings, large performs from the 2 QBs and choices that shall be questioned by one fan base.
It was an ideal recipe to a day that ended with Washington followers swarming the sector and Prince’s “Purple Rain” blasting via the stadium audio system.
“That was a tremendous soccer recreation. If there’s one which I’ve been part of that was greater and higher, I can’t consider it proper now,” Washington coach Kalen DeBoer mentioned.
The ultimate regular-season assembly earlier than each packages transfer to the Massive Ten subsequent 12 months could possibly be the opening act to resolve the final season of the Pac-12 as we all know it.
A rematch within the convention title recreation in Las Vegas is feasible. Half I used to be 60 minutes of depth, pleasure and intrigue.
Penix wanted simply two performs to go 53 yards in 33 seconds after Oregon was stopped on foruth-and-3 on the Washington 47 with 2:11 remaining. Penix threw a 35-yard strike to Ja’Lynn Polk between two defenders, then hit Odunze on a back-shoulder throw on the objective line to offer Washington (6-0, 3-0 Pac-12) the lead.
“He type of gave me the pinnacle nod to do what I wanted to do. He threw it up, gave me a shot, believed in me,” Odunze mentioned.
It was Penix’s fourth landing go of the sport and his second time connecting with Odunze, who had eight catches for 128 yards. Penix completed 22 of 37 for 302 yards. He threw 26-yard touchdowns to Polk and Giles Jackson throughout a wild first half the place the groups mixed for 5 straight landing drives.
Nix did his half and at occasions was the higher quarterback. He spark Oregon’s rally from an 11-point deficit early within the second half and took a 33-29 lead on Jordan James’ 10-yard TD run with 12:58 remaining.
Nix had one final probability to get the Geese (5-1, 2-1) into discipline objective vary and reached the Washington 25 with 17 seconds left. Nix missed together with his subsequent two passes and on the ultimate play Lewis push the kick to the suitable setting off a wild celebration of purple-clad followers pouring onto the sector.
“We had been a play away from this dialog being extraordinarily completely different,” Nix mentioned.
Oregon appeared in place halfway via the fourth quarter to drag off a slender victory in the identical manner the Huskies did final 12 months in Eugene. Washington was stopped on three run performs contained in the Oregon 2, with Tybo Rogers stuffed on fourth-and-goal from the Geese’ 1 with 6:33 left, met by Taki Taimani and others in need of the objective line.
However the Geese had been stopped on fourth-and-3 simply inside midfield when Nix’s go for Tez Johnson fell incomplete with 2:11 remaining. It was the third time within the recreation the Geese failed on fourth down, the earlier two coming contained in the Washington 10-yard line.
“I knew that we might get the ball again and I knew we had been going to go down there and make a play,” Penix mentioned.
Nix completed 33 of 44 passing for 337 yards and threw touchdowns of 11 yards to Patrick Herbert within the first half and a 30-yarder to Troy Franklin within the third quarter. Bucky Irving added 127 yards dashing and a rating.
FOURTH DOWNS
Oregon coach Dan Lanning took duty after the Geese failed on three fourth-down makes an attempt.
“This recreation’s one hundred pc on me. I don’t suppose you guys must look anyplace else however me,” Lanning mentioned.
The Geese failed on fourth-and-goal from the 3-yard line on the ultimate play of the primary half when Nix’s go was batted away by Dominique Hampton.
Halfway via the third quarter, Nix threw incomplete on fourth-and-3 from the Washington 9. After which got here his option to go on fourth down within the closing minutes, making an attempt to finish the sport together with his offense fairly than punting and making Penix go all the discipline with out timeouts.
THE TAKEAWAY
Oregon: The Geese gained 541 complete yards, had 32 first downs and held the ball for greater than 34 minutes and nonetheless weren’t capable of safe the victory. Six extra factors would have come in useful.
Washington: The Huskies will query a few of their offensive play choices within the third quarter throughout their consecutive three-and-outs. The Huskies ran six performs and none of them had been runs. Penix accomplished simply 2 of 6 passes on these six performs and the stops allowed Oregon a possibilities to regain momentum.
Washington additionally handed on a brief discipline objective within the fourth quarter and was stopped on a fourth-and-goal from the one.
UP NEXT
Oregon: The Geese return residence to host No. 19 Washington State subsequent Saturday.
Washington: The Huskies host Arizona State subsequent Saturday.
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AP school soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll
