Huskies can't hold lead, fall to Arizona State 39-19

For about 35 minutes Saturday, the Washington Huskies turned back the clock to the days when November games mattered.

Matched up against a similarly reeling Arizona State team, the Huskies showed an uncommon fire early on, blocking punts, converting trick plays, making stops on third down.

"There was some swagger in the locker room I haven't seen since I've been here," said UW offensive coordinator Tim Lappano. "There was some juice in the locker room. They felt they could win."

But then the present cruelly intervened and all that energy and emotion disappeared. And when it did, Arizona State pounced, scoring the last 23 points of the game en route to a 39-19 Pac-10 football victory.

When it was over, the Huskies were stuck with the sad reality that they are the holders of an 11-game losing streak dating to last season, the longest in school history, snapping the record of 10 set in 1968-69.

"Nobody wants to be a part of that," said UW fullback Paul Homer.

"To have that streak just is something you don't want to have on your name."

It also left Washington 0-9 this season, tying the 1969 team for the worst start in school history, and losers of 18 of their last 20.

"We just didn't make enough plays at the appropriate times," said Tyrone Willingham, who coached his second game since it was announced he won't return next season.

The second-half fade was reminiscent of last year's game with Arizona State in Tempe. The Sun Devils outscored the Huskies 31-3 in the final two quarters to win 44-20.

"We went into a valley and we didn't come out of it," Homer said.

But for a while Saturday, the Huskies were as high as they've been all season.

Coaches unloaded the playbook early, calling a bevy of trick plays.

One resulted in UW's only touchdown, a pass from receiver Cody Bruns, who had taken a lateral, back to quarterback Ronnie Fouch, who caught the ball and waltzed into the end zone for a 6-yard score. That tied the score at 10 in the second quarter.

"We promised them we would empty it out, let it go, have a little fun and try to make some things happen," Lappano said.

But Arizona State used two turnovers — including a 44-yard return of a Homer fumble on a fourth-down play by Troy Nolan — to forge a 16-13 halftime lead.

"You can't just give them 10 points," Lappano said. "You're making it almost impossible when you do that."

The Huskies used two short field goals to take a 19-16 lead with 8:53 to go in the third quarter, their only second-half lead this season other than a third-quarter advantage against Brigham Young. But in each case, Washington was stopped at the 3-yard line after using special-teams plays to get into scoring position — a kickoff return and a blocked punt — and the field goals felt a little hollow.

Still, Washington stopped Arizona State again and got the ball back at its 20 with 7:16 left in the third quarter.

But on first down, one of Washington's tricks backfired. Fouch lost 12 yards on a sack after the ball had been snapped to Bruns, then pitched to receiver Jermaine Kearse and then to Fouch.

"I probably went to the well one too many times," Lappano said.

After the punt, Arizona State got the ball at the UW 41 and drove quickly for the go-ahead score on the first of two touchdown passes from Rudy Carpenter to Michael Jones.

"Without a doubt that was the turning point," said Arizona State coach Dennis Erickson.

Washington again went three-and-out, and ASU again drove on a short field for another Carpenter-to-Jones touchdown. That put the Sun Devils up 30-19 with 12:34 left, and the Huskies couldn't recover.

Washington had just 8 yards in the second half until getting 82 yards in the final minutes. But that, too, came up empty as the drive stopped at the 3-yard line with three seconds left.

And as the gun sounded with only a few thousand fans left in the stadium — the announced crowd was 57,013, though maybe only half that were ever in the seats — the Huskies were left pondering their fifth straight loss by 20 points or more.

"We did so many things well, so it hurts a little bit more than some of the other ones," said defensive tackle Johnie Kirton.

For Erickson, it was his first win in four tries as a coach in the stadium where he often attended games with his father while growing up in Everett.

"The big thing is getting a win for our team," said Erickson of the Sun Devils, who broke a six-game losing streak that had tied a school record. They kept their postseason hopes alive, improving to 3-6. "They gave us everything we wanted."

The Huskies, meanwhile, play Saturday in a game that will attract considerable attention with former UW coach Rick Neuheisel returning with his new team, UCLA.

Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com