The Washington Huskies defeated the Washington State Cougars in the 104th Apple Cup Saturday night. Washington quarterback Keith Price completed 21-29 passes for 291 yards and three touchdowns. Price was given time most of the night to find open receivers, and the WSU secondary could do very little to stop him.
The WSU defense looked to key in on stopping Chris Polk, who ran all over them a year ago. It worked early on, but Polk was able to pick up big gains late and finished with 22 carries for 100 yards and a touchdown. Polk also caught a touchdown.
Senior quarterback Marshall Lobbestael played well in his final game. He completed 29 of 42 passes for 344 yards and three touchdowns. He did make one critical mistake when the Cougars were down ten points in the fourth quarter and near midfield. A double pass was called, in which Carl Winston took the hand-off and ran to the right before throwing back to Lobbestael. Marquess Wilson was covered down the field, but Lobbestael decided to throw it anyway. The Huskies intercepted the ball and preceded to drive down for the game's final score.
Early in the game, it looked like UW was going to cruise to an easy blowout win. They jumped on the Cougars early with a blocked punt for a touchdown and a Price touchdown to Kasen Williams. WSU was able to bounce back after a Washington missed field goal and score touchdowns on consecutive drives to Jared Karstetter and Wilson.
UW answered back with a touchdown before the end of the half, and never relinquished the lead.
WSU's Wilson wasn't able to get loose for a long pass play on a vertical route, but was able to pick up big gains in the screen game. His second touchdown came on a well-designed screen with good blocking that allowed him to score from 36 yards out. Wilson finished with 7 catches for a 108 yards and two touchdowns. Karstetter finished off his career with one his typical games: catching 9 balls for 81 yards and a score.
Another special teams touchdown and two turnovers in or near Husky territory proved costly in this one. The Cougars found themselves down almost immediately and they could never fully recover to take the lead. Playing from behind for sixty minutes is a tough thing to do.
Now we wait for Bill Moos's coming decision on Paul Wulff. We'll have more on that as the news comes along. It shouldn't be too long. For now, Cougar fans are left to mull over a third straight loss in the Apple Cup after winning four of the previous five.