CORVALLIS, Ore. — Jacquizz Rodgers watched solemnly on the sideline wearing his No. 1 jersey over his street clothes as Oregon State’s Rose Bowl aspirations slipped away.
Rival Oregon all but crushed the Beavers’ hopes of going to Pasadena on New Year’s Day with a 65-38 victory Saturday in the highest-scoring game in the Civil War rivalry.
Rodgers, the Beavers’ wily freshman running back who was not able to play in the game because of a shoulder injury, walked quietly off the field afterward with his older brother and teammate, James. Oregon State cornerback Keenan Lewis laid on the turf, staring at the sky in disbelief, until two of his teammates finally helped him up.
A win would have sent the No. 17 Beavers (8-4, 7-2 Pac-10) to the Rose Bowl for the first time since the 1964 season.
Instead, Oregon State will have to wait to see if UCLA can upset No. 5 USC on Dec. 6. Should the Bruins win, the Beavers would share a three-way tie for the conference title with the Trojans and the Ducks, and Oregon State would have the tiebreaker for the Rose Bowl.
The No. 19 Ducks (9-3, 7-2) foiled the Beavers and snapped their six-game winning streak as they avenged a Civil War loss last year at Oregon. With about 20 seconds left to play, Oregon players doused coach Mike Bellotti.
“To go out and ruin somebody’s dreams like that, it feels real good,” Oregon receiver Jaison Williams said.
It was the most points the Beavers had ever allowed.
“We as team wanted this championship so bad and the city of Corvallis has been behind us the whole way. I feel awful we couldn’t bring that in,” Oregon State defensive lineman Slade Norris said.
The loss snapped Oregon State’s eight-game winning streak at Reser.
Jacquizz Rodgers, who leads the conference in rushing (averaging 113.9 yards a game) and is 12th in the nation, injured his shoulder early in Oregon State’s 19-17 victory over Arizona last weekend and was ruled out of the game despite pleas to coach Mike Riley.
His brother James, who the Beavers turned to in the victory over Arizona, was held in check, with seven carries for 56 yards.
Lyle Moevao, who sat out of the game against Arizona because of a shoulder injury, completed 27 of 51 passes for 374 yards and a career-high five touchdowns for the Beavers. He threw two interceptions.
Jeremiah Masoli completed 11 of 17 passes for 274 yards and three touchdowns for the Ducks, who were coming off a bye. Jeremiah Johnson ran for 219 yards and a score.
Oregon had 694 yards in total offense, and won despite 15 penalties for 129 yards. The Beavers racked up 463 yards in total offense.
The Ducks lead the series 56-46-10, but had not won in Corvallis since 1996.
The Ducks jumped out in front on Masoli’s 17-yard scoring pass to Jeff Maehl and Morgan Flint’s 38-yard field goal.
Oregon State’s Jeremy Francis caught a short pass from Moevao and then shook off two defenders as he rumbled into the end zone for a 20-yard scoring reception to make it 10-7.
But Oregon answered on the next series with LeGarrette Blount’s 9-yard touchdown run. It was his 16th rushing TD this season, a new school record. Flint added 22-yard field goal to put Oregon ahead 20-7.
Justin Kahut missed a 21-yard field goal for the Beavers, but made a 24-yarder on the Oregon State’s next series.
After Morgan Flint’s 25-yard field goal, Johnson ran 83 yards for a score and Walter Thurmond added a 40-yard interception return, making it 37-10 for the Ducks and utterly silencing Reser Stadium’s record crowd of 46,319.
Johnson ran for 203 yards in the first half alone.
The Beavers scored on Moevao’s 11-yard pass to Shane Morales with nine seconds left in the first half, then narrowed it to 37-24 on Moevao’s 3-yard scoring pass to Joe Halahuni.
After Masoli had a 14-yard keeper TD for Oregon, Morales grabbed a 10-yard pass from Moevao.
Terence Scott turned a short reception into a 76-yard TD for a score to make it 51-31 for Oregon to start the fourth quarter, but Moevao found Brady Camp with a 2-yard scoring pass with 8:34 left, making it 51-38.
Masoli hit Ed Dickson with a 45-yard scoring pass with just under four minutes left, then Oregon finished the Beavers off with Spencer Paysinger’s 70-yard interception return for a touchdown.
“Oh it’s terribly disappointing. It’s been a long time since we had a locker room where we’ve lost a game and this one is doubly hard,” Riley said.
Oregon State fans were gracious in the loss, and more than 100 stayed afterward to applaud the Beavers as the left the team’s Valley Football Center. One young boy held a sign that said, “We’re so proud of you.”
Earlier in the season, Oregon State defeated then-No. 1 USC 27-21, and the Beavers were a win away from riding that victory against the Trojans to Pasadena.
“It definitely hurts coming this whole way during the season, playing through the games we had to play through and then not being able to top it off,” Moevao said.
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