Oregon State Jackhammers Fresno St When It Mattered
After over 3 1/2 hours of back and forth battling in 80+ degree heat, Saturday night came down to 1 play from 2 yards out. And Oregon State has a jackhammer. After an exchange of timeouts wiped out what would have been the over-time forcing field goal, and both Oregon State Coach Jonathan Smith and Fresno State Coach Jeff Tedford had multiple chances to change their mind, Jack Colletto silenced most of the deafing Bulldog crowd, and set of a lot of yelling and screaming amongst Beaver Nation.
Colletto took the snap and rolled to his right, and dove in for his second touchdown of the game as the clock ran out, and the Beavers collected the 35-32 win.
And just like that, and despite playing short-handed in the backfield, Oregon State had their first win ever in Fresno. Same for Coach Smith, who lost as a player, and a coach with 3 different programs. It was also Coach Smith's first road non-conference win, checking off some more of the check boxes as the Beavers improved to 2-0 on the season, and 2-0 against the favorites to win the Mt. West divisions.
Beavers Celebrate Downing The Dogs
After taking a 14-13 halftime lead, the Beavers looked to be melting down when the Bulldogs jumped to a 23-14 lead, but rallied to take a 29-26 lead with less than 2 minutes left. Only to watch Fresno St march 75 yards in 45 seconds to regain the lead, going up 32-29.
A missed extra point left the door to overtime open though, as Oregon State only needed a field goal to hang in. Chance Nolan hit consecutive passes to Jesiah Irish and Luke Musgrave, for 23 & 28 yards, though, and suddenly the Beavers were in position to take a shot to win before settling for a field goal, and overtime. The first shot, a pass to Tyjon Lindsey wasn't caught, but it did draw a penalty flag, and that set up the decision of the game, with 3 seconds left.
It was a very good night to be a Beaver, and an even better night to have a jack hammer handy.
"We're going to have some fun with this one tonight," Colletto summed up.
(More analysis and photos to come, and Oregon State does need to address dropped passes and a plethora of penalties, but there's a trip home to take first. And someone hand Colletto a couple boxes of fried chicken for the ride.)
Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com
(Photos by Andy Wooldridge)