Arizona, Stoops Save Best for Last

Mike Stoops struggled through a difficult first season as coach at Arizona. He’s 1-0, though, in the game that matters most.

Redshirt freshman Richard Kovalcheck threw three touchdown passes -- two to Mike Jefferson -- and the Wildcats turned five turnovers into 24 points to stun No. 18 Arizona State, 34-27, on Friday.

“Finally, we showed we can do something offensively,” said Stoops, who was his brother Bob’s co-defensive coordinator at Oklahoma. “We attacked in a lot of ways.”

Andrew Walter, the Sun Devils’ record-breaking senior quarterback, suffered an injury to his right shoulder with 7:30 remaining and his team trailing, 34-20. He did not return.

“His right shoulder was driven into the ground,” Arizona State Coach Dirk Koetter said. “It’s a shoulder separation of some sort, but I don’t know the degree.”

Mike Bell rushed for 139 yards in 21 carries for the Wildcats, 3-8 and 2-6 in the Pacific 10. Arizona was averaging only 13 points a game -- last among 117 Division I-A teams.

The victory ended an 18-game losing streak against ranked teams for Arizona.

“They kind of underestimated us, thinking we were a team that was going downhill,” Bell said. “But we always kept fighting. Coach kept us positive. No matter what the situation was, we were going down fighting.”

Arizona State (8-3, 5-3) lost four fumbles and had one pass intercepted, helping Arizona reach a season-high point total.

Arizona State is expected to get a bid to the Holiday Bowl unless USC loses.

Four Arizona State defensive players were benched for portions of the game for violating team rules. Koetter wouldn’t identify them. But safety Ricardo Stewart acknowledged he was one of them, and said the violation was “for something goofy that we did.”