PACIFIC 10 ROUNDUP : Oregon State Rallies to Beat Wyoming, 27-16

Oregon State and Wyoming, both celebrating the start of their 100th year in football, played at Laramie, Wyo., and in the end it was the Beavers enjoying the anniversary after coming from behind to win, 27-16.

After a scoreless first half, Wyoming took a 10-0 lead in the third quarter, but Oregon State scored 27 points in the fourth quarter.

“We have had the most demanding fall camp we’ve had in terms of conditioning and I thought it paid off today, because I thought we were the better conditioned team in the fourth quarter,” said Oregon State Coach Jerry Pettibone. “To be down 10-0 heading into the fourth quarter gives us great encouragement to come back the way we did.”

After struggling to only 59 yards of total offense in the first half, the Beavers used big plays to run up 270 yards and score four times in the second half.

Two of those scores came after Wyoming errors--one on a punt return fumble that led to Oregon State’s first score, and the second on an interception.

“Those were two huge, huge turnovers,” Wyoming Coach Joe Tiller said. “He who wins the turnover battle wins the game.”

Oregon State, which had lost its last eight games of the 1992 season and finished 1-9-1, used the wishbone attack to take control of the game in the second half.

Oregon State came right back as J.J. Young, who gained 119 yards, gave his team a 13-10 lead on a 47-yard touchdown run down the right sideline.

The Beavers scored again one play later, when Reggie Tongue intercepted a pass and returned it 29 yards for a touchdown. The second of Chad Paulson’s two touchdowns came with about 30 seconds to play when he ran in from 36 yards.

Oregon 23, Colorado State 9--After battling to a 9-9 tie in the first half, Danny O’Neil engineered two scoring drives and the Ducks’ defense shut out the Rams at Ft. Collins, Colo.

After getting on track in the second half, O’Neil had a respectable passing day. He completed 21 of 33 passes for 307 yards.

Sonny Lubick, in his first game as Colorado State’s coach after four years as the Miami Hurricanes’ defensive coordinator, said the Oregon defense played exceptionally well. Oregon held Colorado State to 202 yards.

Arizona State 38, Utah 0--Mario Bates, who averaged 147 yards rushing before his knee ligaments were torn last year, gained 86 yards in 16 carries and scored on a 35-yard run as the Sun Devils routed the Utes at Tempe, Ariz.

Grady Benton, who set an NCAA freshman record last season by completing 66.2% of his passes, connected on 15 of 28 and threw for two touchdowns for the Sun Devils, who built a 24-0 halftime lead on Jon Baker’s 24-yard field goal as time expired in the second quarter.

The Sun Devils forced five turnovers in handing Utah its first shutout since a 38-0 loss to Arizona in 1983, a stretch of 115 games.

Keith Williams of the Utes opened the game by kneeling on his two-yard line with the kickoff, thinking that he was in the end zone. It was all downhill after that. It was 24-0 and 38-0 by the end of the third quarter.