Oregon State Brushes Aside San Diego State

With lackluster victories over lower-tier opponents in its first two games, Oregon State needed a strong victory to enter the Pacific 10 Conference season with confidence.

The Beavers got the push they needed Saturday with a 35-3 victory over San Diego State at Corvallis, Ore.

. They open conference play against USC next Saturday at Corvallis.

“They weren’t all pretty, but we’re 3-0,” Oregon State Coach Dennis Erickson. “That was our first goal. It’s so hard to tell where we’re at until we play somebody in the Pac-10. We’ll find out a lot about ourselves next week.”.

Ken Simonton rushed for 91 yards and two touchdowns for the Beavers. He averaged 192 yards in Oregon State’s opening victories over Eastern Washington and New Mexico, but sat out most of the second half Saturday.

The Beavers’ defense scored one touchdown, intercepted four passes, recovered three fumbles, sacked Aztec quarterback Lon Sheriff four times and--in the first half--accumulating 13 tackles for loss.

“The D-line dominated all day,” said Oregon State safety Terrence Carroll. “San Diego State couldn’t do anything. We dominated the whole game on first down. That set the pace.”

Oregon State quarterback Jonathan Smith of Glendora threw a 26-yard touchdown pass to Chad Johnson, and finished 14 for 27 for 172 yards.

San Diego State’s Sheriff was 15 for 30 for 156 yards. The Aztecs (0-4) had 71 yards rushing, compared to 153 for Oregon State.

San Diego State Coach Ted Tollner said he’s disappointed his team has started the season with a four-game losing streak.

“Right now we’re not a very good football team and that’s obvious,” he said. “All we can really do is recommit ourselves and try to start over again.”

He said the Aztecs had hoped to play a good game so they could at least say they were a better team for playing an ambitious non-conference schedule.

“Right now I don’t feel like that,” Tollner said. “They played far better today than we thought. We thought we could play competitively, but we didn’t.”

Erickson gave credit to his defense, which was ranked second in total defense in the nation entering the game. “When we play defense like that, we can compete with anybody,” he said.

Idaho 38, Washington State 34--Quarterback John Welsh scored on a one-yard plunge with 40 seconds left at Pullman, Wash., as the Vandals (1-3) defeated the Cougars (1-3) for the second consecutivet year.

Welsh said he heard the crowd at Martin Stadium chanting, “The Vandal victory is history.”

“I guess we made history again,” he said.

The 83rd edition of the Battle of the Palouse had plenty of drama. There were nine lead changes and 937 yards of total offense.

Idaho hadn’t defeated Washington State two years in a row since the 1964 and 1965 seasons.

The 38 points was the most Idaho has ever scored against the Cougars, topping the 32 in a victory in 1903.

Fresno State 17, California 3--Rodney Wright caught two touchdowns passes from David Carr and the Bulldog defense did the rest in a victory at Fresno.

The Bulldogs are 1-2 and the Bears dropped to 1-2.

NEXT UP FOR USC

WHO: Oregon St.

WHERE: Corvallis, Ore.

WHEN: Saturday, 3:30 p.m.

TV: Fox Sp. Net 2

RADIO: XTRA (690)