Washington has new rival in dominant Oregon State

CORVALLIS, Ore. -- If it wasn't abundantly clear college football is hearing extraterrestrial signals this year, they came through loud and clear on a chill November evening in the Willamette Valley.

Oh, and say hi to your new rival, Washington.

Oregon State has always been one of those kindred spirits, hard for anybody in the Northwest to work up much of a froth over, except for neighboring Oregon.

No more. Here's the news, astonishing as it seems to type this: Oregon State owns Washington.

I remember when 8,000 Huskies fans piled into motor homes in the '70s and '80s and streamed into the Willamette Valley to take over old Parker Stadium. The local fans regarded them much like peasants gazing at kings.

From 1974 to 2000, OSU beat the Huskies exactly once -- as a 36-point underdog in that mind-bender in Seattle in 1985.

Now it's changed completely. The UW fans arrive in modest numbers to see a gleaming, renovated Reser Stadium, one that makes OSU the approximate equal of anybody in the country except the true elite.

And OSU has beaten the Huskies four straight. The latest was perhaps the most bizarre game in a century-old series, marked by an injury to UW quarterback Jake Locker, an against-all-odds, fourth-quarter comeback engineered by Carl Bonnell, and an astonishingly bad call by a Pac-10 officiating crew headed by referee Larry Farina that almost cost OSU the game.

Got your attention, do they, Huskies? Once the punchline of college football, author of 28 consecutive losing seasons, the Beavers have not only thwarted the Huskies four straight years -- the first three in Seattle, mind you -- but they've also beaten them up.

In 2004, UW defensive tackle Dan Milsten suffered a severe, career-ending leg injury against the Beavers. A year ago, Isaiah Stanback tore up his foot against OSU, ending his career.

And with 6:18 left in the first half here Saturday night, Locker sprinted right on his 143rd carry of the season. OSU safety Al Afalava measured him from a diagonal angle, wove through several players and collided with Locker at the OSU 45, helmet-to-helmet.

"It was fair," Afalava said. "I just came through and wrapped up, and he was hurt."

Locker's parents moved inside a long, stunned ring of Huskies on the sideline, and for a long time, it didn't matter a whole lot that Washington was headed for a seventh loss of the season, one that means it goes without a bowl game for the fifth consecutive season.

After Locker was taken off in an ambulance, the best news of the night came unofficially, in dribs and drabs: Locker was out of the emergency room, he was listening to the game, he might rejoin the team for the trip home.

But after Locker's sobering departure, the game degenerated. It appeared that UW defensive tackle Wilson Afoa, in a pileup, took a poke at OSU's prized running back, Yvenson Bernard. Moments later, in a scrum at the goal line, two OSU starting defensive backs -- Bryan Payton and Brandon Hughes -- were ejected, as was UW offensive lineman Ryan Tolar.

Cheap shots were coming out of the woodwork. When OSU freshman safety James Dockery sparred with a Husky on a punt, Dockery was thumbed from the game, and UW coach Tyrone Willingham ducked out to the hash mark to get his player out of the fray.

The night had everything but a full moon. OSU, with a 16-0 lead, gave the Huskies easy points by putting a limited backup quarterback, Lyle Moevao, at risk with the pass. Of course, some of this happened unbeknownst to the near-sellout Oregon State crowd, a couple of thousand of whom departed for good to the tailgates with the lead seemingly secure at halftime.

Secure, it wasn't. Bonnell, who filled in ably last year for Stanback, did it again, firing 41- and 86-yard fourth-quarter touchdown passes to Anthony Russo and Cody Ellis, respectively, making it 29-23, OSU.

That set the stage for a head-scratching call by Farina's crew, when Bernard, his body down -- not just his knee, but his chest, almost -- stretched the ball across the goal line for a clinching touchdown. Except he was ruled to have fumbled, and Washington ran the "fumble" out to give itself a final chance that expired at the OSU 28.

"It was either a touchdown, or a fumble caused by the ground," said OSU coach Mike Riley. "Either one would have been all right.

"Every play is reviewed by the replay booth. They are supposed to review every play. We were out of timeouts. He [the replay official] should have taken the time to look at it more. It was too obvious, that he had to look at it longer."

So move over, Cougars. Make way, Ducks. Washington, somebody else has your attention now. At least, they ought to.

Bud Withers: 206-464-8281 or bwithers@seattletimes.com