Washington Earns Rose Berth Again : Pacific 10: The Huskies get 539 total yards and beat Oregon State, 45-16, a week after losing to Arizona.

Washington clinched a third consecutive Rose Bowl berth Saturday, one week after losing as the nation’s top-ranked team.

“Any time we lose around here, we take it out on the next opponent,” 325-pound offensive tackle Lincoln Kennedy said after Washington’s 45-16 victory over Oregon State on Saturday.

Added Washington linebacker James Clifford: “We reacted real well to the loss to Arizona. We used the anger we felt and carried it into this game.”

Washington’s players found out after the game that No. 9 Arizona, which beat the Huskies, 16-3, the week before at Tucson, had been eliminated from the Rose Bowl race with a 14-7 loss to USC. No. 21 Washington State, the only other Pacific 10 Conference team with a Rose Bowl chance, lost at No. 15 Stanford on Saturday night, 40-3.

In the Huskies’ final home game of the season, quarterback Mark Brunell ran for two touchdowns and passed for two for Washington, 9-1 overall and 6-1 in the Pac-10.

The Huskies had their highest scoring output of the season while passing for 294 yards and rushing for 245 against the Beavers (1-8-1, 0-6-1). Washington’s 539 yards of offense were its highest single-game total this year. Napoleon Kaufman had 146 yards in 12 carries to move within three yards of 1,000.

The Huskies played their first game after a week of turmoil on the Seattle campus during which Athletic Director Barbara Hedges declared quarterback Billy Joe Hobert ineligible because he accepted $50,000 in loans from the father-in-law of a friend.

Washington Coach Don James said that Washington’s lopsided victory proved his team wasn’t distracted by the Hobert case.

“You guys keep talking about distractions,” James said. “I don’t think there were a lot of distractions for us. Our players handled it just like they always do.”