Huskies get beaten up by Beavers at home

The Washington football team left the Husky Stadium field battered and bruised following a thorough 27-17 trouncing at the hands of the Oregon State Beavers and their season hopes of going to a bowl game may have gone down in flames as well when QB Isaiah Stanback appeared to seriously injure his right ankle.

It didn’t start of poorly for the Huskies as they got off to a quick start when Stanback hit WR Anthony Russo on a deep slant that covered 56 yards all the way down to the Oregon State 20, but the Huskies were unable to capitalize, settling for a career-long 46-yard field goal by Michael Braunstein.

The Beavers had no such problem, marching the ball 73 yards in 12 plays, as RB Yvenson Bernard gashed the Husky defense for big gains. He ended the drive by plunging over from three yards out and the Beavers were quickly on top 7-3.

After adding an Alexis Serna 28-yard field goal to go up 10-3, the Husky defense stiffened.

Oregon State QB Sean Canfield, rotating in for starting QB Matt Moore, dropped back on 1st-and-10 from his own 23 and threw it directly to Washington LB Scott White who brought it back 24 yards to the Beavers’ 12.

After RB Kenny James rushed up the middle for nine yards, Stanback, who appeared to be ailing the entire game, took the ball on a power sweep to the right and hammered it over from three yards out. Stanback appeared to get up slowly favoring his right hip.

With the score tied at 10 and 2:33 left in the first half, Moore came back in and promptly threw to TE Joe Newton who had the ball go through his hand and into the waiting arms of White who returned it to the Oregon State 36 and the Huskies were in business.

Stanback hit WR Cody Ellis down the left hash for 32 yards and then took a quarterback draw over the left side for his second touchdown of the day. On the play, Stanback bulled over OSU S Sabby Piscitelli and LB Joey Larocque to put the Huskies ahead 17-10 heading into halftime.

After trading punts early in the third quarter, the Beavers mounted a solid drive that ended when they stalled in the redzone, something the Husky defense has been adept at the past few weeks. They settled for a Serna 26-yard field goal to draw within four.

Then on their next possession the Huskies sent an all-out blitz that was picked up by the Beavers and Moore hit WR Sammie Stroughter, who had gotten behind the Husky secondary and he proceeded to outrace safeties C.J. Wallace and Dashon Goldson for an 86-yards touchdown, putting Oregon State up 20-17 with five minutes remaining in the third quarter.

On the play where he was injured, Stanback faced 3rd-and-26 at Washington’s eight yard-line and escaped the pocket with lots of open field ahead of him. As he approached the first down marked he faked to his left and cut back and his right ankle bent inward. He immediately went down in a heap, two yards short, and pointed to the Husky bench that he had injured his ankle.

After the Huskies punted, Moore drove the Beavers’ offense down to the Washington three before Bernard went over to put Oregon State up 27-17.

The two teams then traded punts, but trailing 27-17 with six minutes remaining, junior Carl Bonnell took over the offense and was unable to do anything with it handing the ball over to Oregon State after missing a deep pass to WR Marlon Wood on 4th-and-26.

The Beavers ran out the clock and moved to 3-3 on the season and 1-2 in the conference while the Huskies fall to 4-3 overall and 2-2 in conference play.

Stroughter finished the game with 228 yards receiving and Moore had a fine day hitting on 14 of 19 passes for 308 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions.

Bernard also had an excellent day, carving up the Washington defense for 151 yards on 29 carries and two touchdowns.

Defensively, DE Dorian Smith had an outstanding day for the Beavers racking up 2.5 sacks and seven tackles. He also forced five hurries on Stanback as well.

Stanback struggled most of the second half even before he was injured, unable to move the Huskies any deeper than the Beavers 45 yard line. Before he left, Stanback had completed 12 of 24 attempts for 162 yards and was sacked three times.

Defensively for the Huskies, Tahj Bomar posted 10 tackles and White chipped in with seven and the two interceptions.

Now Washington faces the formidable task of facing the California Golden Bears on the road in Berkeley hoping to stop their two-game slide.