Washington St. Wins as Price Nearly Pays : Copper Bowl: Coach benches Bledsoe with big lead and Cougars barely escape Utah, 31-28.

Sticking stubbornly to his game plan, Washington State Coach Mike Price yanked next spring’s first-round draft pick from the game in the second quarter and watched as the move almost cost his team a victory in Tuesday night’s Weiser Lock Copper Bowl.

The Cougars beat Utah, 31-28, in a wild finish in front of 40,876 at Arizona Stadium on a 22-yard field goal by Price’s son, Aaron, with 5:11 left.

The victory gave Price the moral high ground when a pack of reporters surrounded him on the field moments after the game. Price calmly explained how it was planned for weeks that he would remove Cougar quarterback Drew Bledsoe from the game in the second quarter.

Bledsoe, the Pacific 10 Conference’s offensive player of the year, was eighth in this year’s Heisman Trophy voting. A 6-foot-5 junior who, if he chooses to leave school, is projected as one of the first picks in the NFL draft, Bledsoe had not been playing badly. In fact, at the time he was benched, he had his team leading, 21-7.

His departure left in its wake a drastic change in momentum, let Utah back in the game and left a stadium full of second-guessers.

“I planned it,” Price said. “It didn’t work out so well, but we recovered.”

Just in time. The 18th-ranked Cougars (9-3), were not supposed to have so much trouble with the Utes (6-6).

But Bledsoe was the difference. He completed 30 of 46 passes for 476 yards, one interception and two touchdowns.

The Cougars scored on their first three possessions for a 21-0 lead.

Washington State’s first drive was a Bledsoe design. His 38-yard pass to Phillip Bobo was perfectly timed, perfectly placed and nearly good for a touchdown. Bobo fell on the three-yard line. Shaumbe Wright-Fair ran it in on the next play.

Utah gained only six yards on its first possession, setting the tone for its offensive output in the first quarter--88 yards to 242 for Washington State.

The Cougars scored next on an 87-yard touchdown pass play from Bledsoe to Bobo. Wright-Fair, who rushed for 124 yards, scored at the end of the first quarter to make it 21-0.

At that point, Bledsoe was eight of 10 for 196 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions.

Utah put together an eight-play scoring drive at 9:35 of the second quarter to make it 21-7, and then an odd thing happened. Price sent a new quarterback into the game, little-used Mike Pattinson. Pattinson’s six-play tenure ended with his fumbling away a snap.

The Utes needed only 57 seconds to score on a trick play. Quarterback Frank Dolce lined up in the shotgun formation with tailback Keith Williams next to him. The snap went to Williams, who ran 25 yards for the touchdown.

Bledsoe came back into the game, but for nearly the rest of the half the momentum had shifted to Utah, making Price’s decision appear disastrous for Washington State.

However, with only 31 seconds left in the half, Bledsoe found Bobo for a 47-yard touchdown pass play to give Washington State a 28-14 lead.

But the Cougars were reeling in the third quarter, as the Utes doubled their offensive output and tied the score.

Bledsoe threw an awful pass that was intercepted by Utah’s Cedric Crawford. Ten seconds later Henry Lusk snagged a 49-yard pass from Dolce for a Utah touchdown at 8:59 in the third quarter. Chris Yergensen’s extra point was blocked.

Kevin Williams’ 28-yard run set up an eight-yard touchdown by Pierre Jones. Utah tied the score with a two-point conversion when Dolce found Scott Murry alone in the left corner of the end zone.

Suddenly, it was 28-28.

Washington State had a chance to go ahead, but Aaron Garcia sent a 42-yard field goal attempt wide to the right. Then Price redeemed himself with the 22-yarder.

Yergensen had a chance to tie the game with 3:19 remaining, but his 20-yard try was wide left.