UW throttles WSU 45-17 in Apple Cup to clinch Pac-12 North title

Published 6:30 pm Friday, November 25, 2016

PULLMAN — The Washington Huskies entered the 2016 season with aspirations of reaching the College Football Playoff.

And, the sixth-ranked Huskies are still poised to achieve that goal after dismantling No. 23 Washington State 45-17 before 33,733 fans in the 109th Apple Cup on Friday at Martin Stadium.

The victory gave UW (8-1 Pac-12, 11-1 overall) its first Pac-12 North Division title since the conference expanded to 12 teams and earned the Huskies a berth in next week’s Pac-12 championship game against either USC or Colorado.

The Cougars (7-2 Pac-12, 8-4 overall) await their fate when the bowl bids are handed out following the conference championship games.

“It feels good, just knowing we haven’t played for something this special in years,” said receiver John Ross, who caught eight passes for 80 yards and a touchdown. “Last year we were fighting to be bowl eligible. Now we’re playing for something very special, so it’s really nice.”

Washington quarterback Jake Browning was precise all afternoon as he completed 21-of-29 pass attempts for 292 yards and three touchdowns. Dante Pettis caught Browning’s first two scoring tosses and Lavon Coleman helped seal the win with two touchdowns and 82 yards on the ground for the Huskies.

“I think we just stayed pretty balanced, didn’t really get out of rhythm that much,” Browning said. “I thought we stalled a little bit in the third quarter with the three-and-out and they got a little bit of momentum back. We had a good goal-line stand by our defense twice, and I thought we played well in all three phases of the game and that’s why we won.”

Meanwhile, WSU’s vaunted passing offense largely failed to materialize behind quarterback Luke Falk. The redshirt junior was 33-of-50 passing for 269 yards and a touchdown, but was picked off three times.

The first interception was the costliest as it came just prior to halftime after Washington had built a 35-10 lead on Coleman’s 22-yard touchdown run.

Falk marched the Cougars downfield before an ill-advised first-and-goal pass from the 9-yard line found UW’s DJ Beavers in the end zone with 14 seconds to go in the half.

WSU head coach Mike Leach called it a bad read, indicating that perhaps Falk should have checked down rather than looking to the end zone.

“We’ve got the stuff underneath — just hit it,” Leach said. “Everybody is highly motivated to do well and everybody wants to do extremely well, and you just gotta be mentally solid enough that you do it all the time.”

It was a fitting end to the first half by a UW team that looked like a squad bent on forcing its way into the CFP conversation. The Huskies scored on their first four possessions — with a 37-yard WSU field goal in-between — to take a 28-3 lead after one quarter before the teams traded second-quarter touchdowns.

WSU got the ball to start the second half and plodded downfield before the drive culminated with a Gabe Marks 9-yard touchdown catch at 8:45.

That made it 35-17, but those were the final points WSU scored as the Huskies stymied the Cougars’ next drive by holding them on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line.

Coleman tacked on a 15-yard fourth-quarter touchdown run and Cameron Van Winkle later added a 41-yard field goal for the final points.

Falk threw two interceptions in the waning minutes.

“I’m proud of our guys,” Petersen said. “This is a really good Washington State team. I’m proud of how they prepared, the energy was awesome to start the game. We knew Washington State would rally a little bit, and they did. But our defense kind of swelled up.”

The Cougars’ first turnover of the day also proved costly when Jamal Morrow fumbled at the WSU 46-yard line on the Cougars’ first possession and subsequently Browning found Pettis for an 18-yard touchdown pass. That, combined with a 2-yard touchdown run from Lynnwood native Myles Gaskin on UW’s opening drive, gave the Huskies a 14-0 lead at 7:45 in the first.

Washington was just getting started. Pettis hauled in a 61-yard pass on the next possession despite pass interference on WSU cornerback Darrien Molton, and suddenly it was 21-0.

“(The) ball is a little under-thrown, but Jake throws it nice and early, and it’s hard on the DBs when you get it up early,” Petersen said. “They’re trying to find the ball and Dante rather than just getting the pass interference, he attacked the ball. We can still make a play, don’t settle for the pass interference, so it was nice to see him do that.”

Despite a 41-yard kickoff return from Kaleb Fossum and a 34-yard completion to Robert Lewis, the Cougars were forced to settle for an Erik Powell field goal to make it 21-3 at 5:49 in the first. But the Huskies pushed it to 28-3 with a perfectly thrown 6-yard touchdown pass to Ross with 23 seconds to go in the first quarter.

The Cougars caught a break in the second when Shalom Luani forced a Ross fumble and Jalen Thompson recovered at the UW 18. An 8-yard rush by Falk set up Morrow’s 1-yard scoring run as the Cougars cut the deficit to 28-10 at 6:07 in the second.

But then came Coleman’s touchdown run and the Falk interception that essentially ended the half.

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