Washington State Derails Arizona

Dave Minnich ran for three touchdowns and caught a scoring pass as Washington State defeated Arizona, 48-21, on Saturday night at Tucson for its first 4-0 start since 1997.

The Cougars avenged last year’s triple-overtime road loss to improve to 2-0 in the Pacific 10 Conference.

That 53-47 victory was the last of 2000 for the Wildcats (3-1, 0-1), whose five-game skid at the end convinced coach Dick Tomey to resign. All five losses were against conference foes, and the bruising by Washington State extended Arizona’s Pac-10 losing streak to six.

Three of the last four games between them were decided in overtime or on the final play, but this one was over quickly as Washington State followed up on its three first-half interceptions by sacking Jason Johnson four times in the second half.

Minnich, who had 121 yards in 30 carries, scored on runs of eight, six and two yards and on a 29-yard pass from Jason Gesser.

Arizona, stunned by Washington State’s 28-point onslaught in little more than half of the first quarter, recovered to trail 28-21 early in the second.

But Gesser led an 87-yard, 18-play march that Minnich capped with his six-yard run to lift the Cougars to a 35-21 halftime lead.

Arizona State 53, San Jose State 15--Jeff Krohn threw for 229 yards and four touchdowns and Ryan Dennard scored four TDs as the Sun Devils defeated the Spartans at Tempe, Ariz.

Krohn and Dennard connected for three touchdowns, and Delvon Flowers had 159 yards rushing and a touchdown for Arizona State (2-1).

The Sun Devils took control of the game when Dennard returned a fumble 38 yards for a score at 5:33 of the third quarter, putting Arizona State up 39-15.

Marcus Arroyo passed for 262 yards for San Jose State (0-3), which got touchdowns from Edell Sheperd and Julien Jamar.