Sun Devils Turn Over a Leaf in Pac-10

A crazy race in a crazy Pacific 10 season got absolute loony late Saturday night as defending champion Arizona State rallied to beat Washington State, 44-31, after blowing a 24-0 lead in the second quarter.

The victory, before a crowd of 73,644 at Sun Devil Stadium, wrecked the Cougars’ dreams of a perfect season and put the Sun Devils right back in the championship race.

No. 20 Arizona State (6-2, 4-1) capped an unbelievable finish by recovering two Ryan Leaf fumbles for touchdowns in the final 2:55.

With No. 10 Washington State driving for the possible game-winning touchdown, safety Mitchell Freedman’s blitz forced Leaf to fumble. Hamilton Mee scooped up the loose ball and raced 66 yards for the score to put Arizona State up, 37-25.

On Washington State’s next possession, Derrick Ford forced another Leaf fumble, with Ford recovering for a touchdown with 2:32 left.

Washington State fell to 7-1, and 5-1 in Pac-10 play.

To win the Pac-10, the Sun Devils have to win their final three conference games and also need two Washington losses and a UCLA defeat.

Arizona State is thankful to be in the race after blowing a 24-0 lead and finding itself behind, 25-24, in the fourth quarter.

But Arizona State drove 80 yards in seven plays to take the lead for good, 30-25 with 9:57 left, on a five-yard Ryan Kealy pass to his high school teammate, Tariq McDonald.

Kealy completed 23 of 36 passes for 245 yards and four touchdowns. Leaf was 24 of 49 for 447 yards and three touchdowns.

Washington State had completed an amazing comeback, having trailed, 24-0, with 7:43 left in the first half.

The Cougars took their first lead, 25-24, with 13:18 left on Leaf’s 11-yard touchdown pass to Shawn McWashington and Leaf’s leap for the two-point conversion, made possible when two unsportsmanlike penalties put the ball inside the one-yard line.

Comebacks are nothing new for Washington State. The Cougars trailed Arizona last week, 14-0, then won in overtime.

The Cougars chipped away at the lead, cutting it first to 24-10 early in the third quarter on Rian Lindell’s 43-yard field goal.

Later in the quarter, Leaf and Shawn McWashington connected on a 66-yard pass play to the Arizona State nine-yard line, setting up a two-yard scoring run by DeJuan Gilmore to make it 24-17 with 1:17 left in the third.

It was some turnaround. Washington State got off the bus and was down 24-0. Or so it seemed. It might have been more too, had Arizona State’s first possession not stalled at the Cougars’ one, when tight end Zack Romero dropped Kealy’s fourth-down pass in the end zone.

It was about all Arizona State dropped in the first half.

Taking over at the one, Washington State went three and out and punted from its end zone, Ricky Boyer returning the kick 22 yards to Cougars’ 24.

Six plays later, Kealy threw a 13-yard scoring pass to Lenzie Jackson to put Arizona State up 7-0.

The Sun Devils made it 14-0 on the first play of the second quarter on an eight-yard scoring pass from Kealy to Kenny Mitchell.