Turnovers help Oregon State turn back Utah

CORVALLIS — It hasn’t been easy all year for Oregon State, and it wasn’t easy at all Saturday night at Reser Stadium.

As they’ve done all year, though, the Beavers got things done when it mattered.

Storm Woods scored on three short touchdown runs and Oregon State’s defense rose to the occasion as the eighth-ranked Beavers (6-0 overall, 4-0 in Pac-12 action) did just enough to get past Utah 21-7.

Oregon State is 4-0 in conference play for the first time since 1968, but that’s not all. It has been 105 years since the program — it was Oregon Agricultural College in those days — started a season 6-0. It has these Beavers thinking about achieving something that was unthinkable two months ago, when the media picked them to finish sixth and last in the Pac-12 North coming off a 3-9 campaign in 2011.

“We’re shooting as high as we can — maybe a national championship,” said senior receiver Markus Wheaton, who had seven receptions for 90 yards on a night when Oregon State was offensively challenged. “But we’re going to play them one at a time.”

Next up is a visit to Washington, a 52-17 loser to Arizona Saturday night. The Beavers, as has been the case in recent weeks, will be the hunted.

“That’s a beautiful thing to have,” Oregon State coach Mike Riley said.

The victory clinched bowl eligibility for the Beavers — who missed the postseason the past two years — with still half the regular season to play.

“Our first goal is to reach bowl eligibility,” Riley said. “You want to do it as fast as you can, and you want to go to the best bowl you can.

“We’ve got part of that done. Now let’s see where else we can go with it.”

Oregon State’s six victories have been achieved by an average margin of fewer than 10 points.

“Every single game we’ve had has been a brawl — a big fight to the end,” said sophomore defensive end Dylan Wynn, who had eight tackles and a fumble recovery that set up a touchdown.

“Every one of them have gone into the fourth quarter to be decided,” Riley said. “It’s a good sign of mental toughness that we find a way to finish it out.”

Oregon State couldn’t move the ball most of the game against the Utes (2-5, 0-4), who held the Beavers to 226 yards total offense — their lowest yardage in a victory since 2005.

“We controlled things from start to finish defensively,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. “We got stuck in a couple of short-field situations in the first half where we gave up touchdowns, but other than that, we were very good.”

“Utah is one of the most physical defenses we’ve seen for two years now,” said Riley, referring in part to the Utes’ 27-8 win over the Beavers at Salt Lake City last season. “It’s been hard for us against them. It was good just to win.”

The Men in Orange put together their only real drive when they needed it most, going 67 yards in seven plays for a touchdown that proved to be the game-clincher with 7:41 to play.

In his second career start and first at home, Cody Vaz completed 16 of 26 passes for only 174 yards. But the junior QB, pressed into action with the knee injury to Sean Mannion, engineered the final TD drive superbly, hitting Kevin Cummings for passes of 25 and seven yards to get things started.

“Cody played his most successful, productive, poised ball of the night on a big-time drive when we had to have it,” Riley said.

Utah managed only 307 yards total offense, but the biggest statistic was the turnover disparity — Utes four, Beavers zero. The OSU defense recovered two fumbles and came up with a pair of interceptions.

“That was the difference in the game,” Riley said.

To say that two of the turnovers set Oregon State’s offense up with a short field would be an understatement. The Beaver “O” had to travel only 16 and 10 yards for a pair of touchdowns in a 90-second span that gave the hosts a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter.

OSU linebacker Michael Doctor created the game’s first big break, returning an interception of a pass by true freshman quarterback Travis Wilson 19 yards to the Utah 16. Three plays later, Woods carried over from the 1 for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead with 57 seconds left in the first quarter.

On Utah’s next possession, OSU’s Rudolf Fifita sacked Wilson, whose fumble was recovered by the Wynn at the Utes’ 10. Two plays later, Woods scored from the 2 to push the Orangemen’s lead to 14-0 with 14:27 left in the second quarter.

Utah came back with 10-play, 88-yard scoring drive. Wilson hit Jake Murphy — son of former major league slugger Dale Murphy, a Portland native — for 18 yards and a touchdown, drawing the visitors to within 14-7 with 6:00 left before halftime.

Utah took the first possession of the third quarter from its 35 to the Oregon State 3-yard line on a drive that consumed more than six minutes. But on third-and-goal, the Beavers’ Scott Crichton recovered a fumble on a pitch play at the OSU 10.

The rest of the third quarter was a battle for field position, with Oregon State owning the edge, albeit precariously.

Then came Oregon State’s one big drive. After a 15-yard penalty pushed OSU to first-and-25 on its own 19 early in the fourth quarter, Vaz found Cummings for 25 yards and a first down. Brandin Cooks went 11 yards on a fly sweep for another first down to the Utah 45. On third-and-13 from the 48, Vaz connected with Cummings for seven yards, and a 15-yard helmet-to-helmet penalty gave the Beavers first down on the Utes’ 26.

On the next play, Vaz drilled one Wheaton on a slant pass for 24 yards to the Utah 2. Woods scored from there to increase Oregon State’s advantage to 21-7 with 7:41 remaining, and soon enough the OSU students were chanting “Six and oh! Six and oh!”

Oregon State gained only 52 yards rushing.

“We like to hit the century mark in rushing yards, so there’s a lot of stuff we can work on there,” said OSU center Isaac Seumalo, who battled Utah’s All-America D-tackle, Star Lotulelei much of the night. “Utah’s defense was right up there with BYU’s and Wisconsin’s. They knew what we wanted to run, and we didn’t execute as well as we’d like. It seemed like we were always one or two things away from really getting there.

“I give a lot of credit to our defense. What they did tonight has become their standard.”

Though Vaz threw for only 176 yards, he was neither intercepted nor sacked.

“For the most part, (the OSU offensive line) did a pretty good job,” Riley said. “We were our own worst enemies getting started. We didn’t convert a couple of third downs so we got no rhythm going. Give (the Utes) some credit for that, too. They had a good mixture of some things they were doing against us.”

Expectations have changed since the Beavers began the season hoping to win enough games to be bowl-eligible.

“I don’t think anybody’s satisfied with 6-0,” Cummings said. “It feels good, but nobody’s satisfied with that. Our coaches harp on us not being satisfied. At chapel, we had a talk about being average. Nobody wants to be average. They don’t write books about people being average.”

NOTES — Riley admitted he played it “close to the vest” in offensive decisions, choosing to punt twice in fourth-and-1 situations in Utah territory. “We hadn’t been spectacular on third downs,” the OSU coach said. “Anything that would give them midfield position like that would not have been a smart thing to do. The one thing I wasn’t going to do was put our defense on a short field.” ... Oregon State finished 2 of 11 in third-down conversions, Utah 3 of 16 ... Oregon State entered the game first in the Pac-12 and fourth nationally in run defense, yielding 70 yards per game. The Utes had 135 yards on the ground. “That’s good production,” Whittingham said. “The biggest disappointment was turning the ball over four times and scoring one touchdown. You’re going to win exactly zero games doing that.”

Cooks, who entered the game sixth nationally in reception yardage per game, caught only one pass for eight yards. ... Utah tailback John White, who rushed for 205 yards in the victory over the Beavers a year ago, carried 20 times for 68 yards Saturday night. ... Woods picked up only 46 yards on his 17 rushing attempts. ... A crowd of 45,769 was on hand, making it the first-back-to-back sellouts at Reser since 2008. ... Utah’s Reggie Dunn, who originally signed a letter of intent with Oregon State but didn’t qualify academically, returned the second-half kickoff 35 yards. Dunn then went 23 yards on a reverse pitch on the Utes’ opening drive of the second half. ... Former Beavers James and Jacquizz Rodgers drew a huge, lengthy standing ovation from the crowd when introduced between the first and second quarters.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Utah 0 7 0 0 — 7

Oregon State 7 7 0 7 — 21

FIRST QUARTER

OSU — Storm Woods 1 run (Trevor Romaine kick) :57.

SECOND QUARTER

OSU — Woods 2 run (Romaine kick) 14:27.

UTAH — Jake Murphy 18 pass from Travis Wilson (Coleman Petersen kick)

THIRD QUARTER

No scoring.

FOURTH QUARTER

OSU — Woods 2 run (Romaine kick) 7:41.

ATT: 45,769.

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