Pacific 10 Roundup : 11th-Ranked Arizona State Struggles for a Tie

Channing Williams scored on a one-yard run with 5 1/2 minutes to play at Tempe, Ariz., to give 11th-ranked Arizona State a tie in its Pacific 10 Conference opener with Washington State.

The Sun Devils, 2-0-1 overall, drove 56 yards in four plays in 1 minute 45 seconds to tie the Cougars. Jeff Van Raaphorst, benched late in the third quarter after throwing his fourth interception, returned to hit split end Aaron Cox on a 52-yard pass play to the Washington State four to set up Williams’ scoring run.

Washington State, 1-2-1 overall and 0-1-1 in the Pac-10, had taken a 21-14 lead on Ed Blount’s one-yard touchdown pass to tight end Doug Wellsandt with 5:31 left in the third quarter. It was set up by safety Ron Collins’ interception and 25-yard return to the Arizona State 40.

Washington State forged a 14-14 tie with 4:26 left in the first half on Blount’s 6-yard pass to split end Kittrick Taylor.

Heavily favored Arizona State had a chance to take a halftime lead, but Kent Bostrom came up short on a 47-yard field goal attempt with 1:16 remaining.

Blount completed 10 of 22 passes for 103 yards without an interception. Porter ran for 131 yards in 23 carries, with 104 yards in the first half.

Darryl Harris rushed for a career-high 145 yards in 27 carries for Arizona State.

Van Raaphorst completed only 5 of 15 passes for 128 yards with 5 interceptions--the last by safety Kevin Thomasson at the Washington State 40-yard line to end the game.

Arizona 24, Colorado 21--Junior flanker Jeff Fairholm scored on a 67-yard pass play from Alfred Jenkins with 4:45 left to rally the 10th-ranked Wildcats past the winless Buffaloes in a nonconference game at Boulder, Colo.

“It’s ironic,” Arizona Coach Larry Smith said. “That was exactly the same pass we threw last year that they intercepted to shut us down (late in the game, which was won by Colorado, 14-13). It was the exact same call.”

The loss was the third late-game setback in a row for the Buffaloes.

“This has happened the last three weeks,” quarterback Mark Hatcher said. “The defense has come out smoking, and the offense has put points on the board, but something happens and we walk away with a loss.”

The Wildcats (4-0) trailed throughout the game until Fairholm got open over the middle, caught Jenkins’ pass at the 50 and outran the Colorado secondary. It was Arizona’s first victory over Colorado in the 13-game series.

The Buffaloes (0-4) used big plays to forge leads of 14-3 and 21-12. Freshman halfback O.C. Oliver ran for two touchdowns to spark the losers.

Jenkins passed for 214 yards, completing 13 of 26 attempts, and Art Greathouse added 97 yards in 24 carries as Arizona had an edge in total offense, 425 to 246 yards, and time of possession, 35:20 to 24:40.

Colorado, a wishbone team from the Big Eight, got 134 of its 246 total yards through the air. Hatcher, with the best performance of his career, hit on 5 of 8 passes for 134 yards.

Stanford 17, Oregon State 7--John Paye threw for one touchdown and Brad Muster ran for another as the Cardinal sloshed to a Pac-10 victory at Corvallis, Ore.

Oregon State’s defense stifled Stanford most of the game, but Beaver fumbles deep in their own territory set up 10 of the Cardinal points.

Oregon State Coach Dave Kragthorpe refused to blame the rain for his team’s poor performance.

“It was the same ball and the same rain for both teams,” he said. “I think they did a better job than we did.

“I am extremely disappointed in our offense,” Kragthorpe said. “We played well enough defensively to win.”

Stanford, off to a 3-0 start for the first time in 14 years, took a 3-0 first-quarter lead on David Sweeney’s 27-yard field goal and made it 10-0 on Muster’s three-yard run with 4:49 left in the second quarter.

The Cardinal made it 17-0 when, on fourth and four at the Oregon State eight-yard line, Paye hit tight end Eric Snelson for a touchdown with 4:45 left in the third quarter.

Dave McLaughlin led Oregon State to its only score as Pat Chaffey made a leaping catch of an 18-yard scoring pass with 10:50 left.

The Beavers fell to 0-3 in their only appearance on their home field in their first six games.

San Jose St. 35, California 14--Flanker Guy Liggins raced 35 yards for a touchdown on a reverse, and Mike Perez passed for 348 yards as the Spartans of the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. overwhelmed the Bears at Berkeley.

Kenny Jackson added 116 yards rushing as San Jose State (2-2) ran for 207 and rolled up 562 total yards to California’s 336.

Cal (1-2) scored on two dazzling runs by Marc Hicks on pass play covering 10 and 46 yards from Brian Bedford. But Hicks fumbled three times, twice on one play. He recovered his first fumble but lost the second.

Perez, who entered the game fourth in the nation in total offense, completed 28 of 45 passes.