Harrington Leads Oregon’s 63-28 Thrashing of Arizona

Joey Harrington threw for three touchdowns and ran for three more as No. 7 Oregon defeated Arizona, 63-28, Saturday night at Tucson to start the season 5-0 for the second time in 37 years.

Harrington, 19-2 as a starter, completed 15 of 24 passes for 279 yards, then sat out the fourth quarter as Oregon, which improved to 2-0 in the conference, blew out an opponent for the first time this season after struggling in its earlier victories.

Onterrio Smith rushed for 131 yards in 15 carries and scored two touchdowns for Oregon. Maurice Morris gained 110 yards in 21 attempts and scored once as the Ducks rolled up 607 yards, 472 in the first three quarters.

The Wildcats (3-2, 0-2), in their first season under Coach John Mackovic, have given up 111 points in consecutive home losses to Washington State and Oregon.

The Ducks tied their team record for points in a Pac-10 game. They scored 63 against Stanford in 1998. It was the most points given up by Arizona in a Pac-10 game.

Samie Parker caught a career-high six passes for 160 yards, all in the first half.

Wesly Mallard intercepted a pass and recovered a fumble for the Ducks, who turned all five of the Wildcats’ turnovers into touchdowns.

Clarence Farmer rushed for 158 yards in 15 carries. His 78-yard run set up a Wildcat touchdown that tied the game 14-14 with 13:43 to play in the first half. Oregon scored the next 49 points.

Jason Johnson was seven of 18 for 132 yards and two touchdowns for Arizona before being pulled from the game after throwing an interception, the first of three third-quarter turnovers by the Wildcats.

Harrington completed 14 of 19 passes for 267 yards for three touchdowns in the first half as Oregon scored the last 21 points of the second quarter to take a 35-14 lead the break.

Arizona State 63, Louisiana Lafayette 27--Jeff Krohn passed for 290 yards and four touchdowns--all to Shaun McDonald--in three quarters as the Sun Devils routed the Ragin’ Cajuns at Tempe, Ariz.

A wet field failed to slow down Arizona State (3-1), which struck from close in and long range with equal efficiency.

Krohn had 250 yards at halftime after TD strikes of 45, 57, 19 and 19 yards to McDonald.

Krohn, who was 12 of 23, reached 1,000 yards in four games, the fastest in school history. McDonald tied a school record for scoring catches set by John Allen against San Jose State in 1953.

Tom Pace scored on four-and one-yard runs. Mike Williams ran in from five and one yards and Jermaine McKinney had a two-yard TD run with 4:01 left.

It was Arizona State’s second consecutive game of 50-plus points, after last week’s 53-15 rout of San Jose State.