Huskies Continue to Fatten Up on WAC Cooking

Brock Huard and Jerome Pathon are enjoying life against the Western Athletic Conference.

Huard tied a career high with four touchdown passes as No. 3 Washington of the Pacific 10 Conference continued to feast on WAC opponents, beating San Diego State, 36-3, Saturday at Seattle.

Washington (2-0) beat Brigham Young, 42-20, last weekend and now is 23-4-1 against WAC opponents.

Huard’s favorite target was Pathon, who caught eight passes for 182 yards and two touchdowns. Against BYU he caught seven for 163 yards.

“With about 400 yards in two games, that shows we put a lot of work in this summer,” Huard said of his success with Pathon.

With the Aztecs (1-1) focusing on stopping Washington’s running game, Huard had time to throw.

“If a defense is going to load up to stop the run, we can make the big play downfield,” said Huard, a sophomore who completed 16 of 26 passes for 313 yards and two touchdowns.

“When I see the other team trying to tee off on the run, my eyes get a little bigger,” Pathon said.

Washington, perhaps looking ahead to next weekend’s game against No. 6 Nebraska, was slow to get untracked in a sloppy, penalty-filled game.

The Aztecs converted only once in 13 third-down attempts and their rushing game was completely shut down. The Huskies limited Kevin McKechnie, the nation’s top-rated quarterback, to 203 yards passing.

“We couldn’t run the ball,” McKechnie said. “You have to do both to be successful.”

Huard’s 47-yard pass to Fred Coleman set up the Huskies’ first touchdown early in the first quarter. Four plays later, Pathon caught a 12-yard pass from Huard.

San Diego State marched downfield on its next series, thanks to two receptions by Az-Zahir Hakim that covered 56 yards. But Hakim, after catching a short pass and eluding three tacklers, was stripped of the ball on the one by Tony Parrish to end the scoring threat.

OREGON 24, NEVADA 20

Tony Hartley caught a 14-yard touchdown pass from Jason Maas with 1:02 left to give the Ducks a surprisingly difficult victory over the Wolf Pack at Reno.

Maas, who replaced Ducks starter Akili Smith in the second quarter, converted four third-down situations as he drove Oregon (2-0) 96 yards for the winning score.

Nevada had taken a 20-17 lead on John Dutton’s 10-yard touchdown pass to Trevor Insley with 4:20 remaining.

But Maas then led Oregon on the winning drive with four clutch third-down plays--a 26-yard pass to LaCorey Collins, a one-yard sneak, an 11-yard pass to Blake Spence and an 18-yard completion to Spence.

After Eric Winn gained 14 yards on a draw play, Maas threw to Hartley, who dragged Nevada defenders Reggie Mitchell and Greg Oliver into the end zone.

Nevada (1-2), from the Big West Conference, was trying for its first win over a Pac-10 team in 50 years.

Dutton was 33 of 55 for 381 yards and two touchdowns, while Geoff Noisy tied a school record with 18 receptions for Nevada.

Maas completed 20 of 33 passes for 255 yards and two touchdowns for Oregon.

Oregon won despite 14 penalties for 136 yards, three turnovers and a sub-par second half by the team’s leading rusher, Saladin McCullough. He was held to minus-one yard in the second half after gaining 89 in the first half.

Nevada placekicker Damon Shea missed three of five field-goal attempts, including a 25-yarder.

He made a 21-yarder with 10:28 remaining in the game to put Nevada up 13-10.