Oregon Can’t Duck Mistakes in 51-43 Loss

Colorado took advantage of Oregon’s charitable mood Friday to win the Aloha Bowl.

The Buffaloes converted four of six Duck turnovers into scores, Ben Kelly ran back the opening kickoff 93 yards for a touchdown and quarterback Mike Moschetti set an Aloha Bowl record with four touchdown passes in Colorado’s 51-43 victory over No. 21 Oregon.

Colorado (8-4) held off a fourth-quarter rally by Oregon (8-4), in which the Ducks scored three touchdowns before being stopped on their final possession of the game.

“We made too many mistakes early,” Oregon Coach Mike Bellotti said. “When you make as many mistakes as we did, and they’re damaging mistakes . . . you don’t expect to win against that many football teams.”

Moschetti threw touchdown passes of 72 yards to Darrin Chiaverini, 58 yards to Marcus Stiggers, 20 yards to Daniel Graham and five yards to Javon Green to lead the Buffaloes, who were playing in the school’s 1,000th game.

Damon Wheeler had a 52-yard interception return for a touchdown for Colorado and Jeremy Aldrich kicked field goals of 48, 41 and 23 yards to set an Aloha Bowl record for most field goals as the teams combined for the most points in the 17-year history of the game.

“We talked about being able to control the line of scrimmage as one of our goals. The other was to get back in the big-play business,” Colorado Coach Rick Neuheisel said. “They did a great job in containing our running game, but they also left themselves vulnerable to big plays.”

Running back Derien Latimer scored three touchdowns for Oregon. Quarterback Akili Smith scored on a one-yard run and passed for second-half scores of nine yards to Jed Weaver and 42 yards to Donald Haynes.

Smith’s touchdown to Haynes cut the Colorado lead to 51-43 with 5:55 to play. The Ducks stopped Colorado on a fourth-and-two on the next series, taking over at their 43 with 3:11 to play. But the Buffaloes’ defense held Oregon on fourth down and ran out the clock.

“We dug as deep as we could,” Smith said. “We just came up short.”

Moschetti was 11 of 23 for 213 yards and the four touchdown passes. Chiaverini caught three passes for 96 yards and a touchdown and Stiggers had three receptions for 81 yards and a touchdown.

Smith completed 24 of 46 passes for 456 yards, with the two touchdowns and two interceptions. Donald Haynes had seven catches for 148 yards and a score for the Ducks.

The 94 points scored by both teams broke the bowl’s record of 81 points scored in 1995, when Kansas beat UCLA, 51-30.