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The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

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The Daily Utah Chronicle

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Utes best Beavers in emotional game, hold keys in Pac-12 South

After their first loss of the season last week, the No. 13 Utes got back on track and beat Oregon State on Halloween night, 27-12. Although Utah got the win, its goal for the night, head coach Kyle Whittingham knows it was not perfect a game.

“Were you guys impressed?” Whittingham asked after the game. “I was impressed with a win — that’s the main objective. Probably way too hard on everybody because I expect perfection.”

Before the game, Whittingham said running back Devontae Booker needed to get more touches, and he did. On Utah’s first seven plays, he had six carries and powered the Utes down the field. After falling just short of the goal line, Booker broke the plane on the following play to give the Utes the early 7-0 lead.

On OSU’s opening drive, defensive back Reggie Porter came up big to break up a pass on third down to force the Beavers to punt. Utah then received the ball deep in its own territory and again, Booker found some gaps to advance the ball. Travis Wilson soon connected with Harrison Handley for the second score of the game to put Utah up 14-0.

After a strong 77-yard rushing performance by Booker in the first quarter, things took a turn for the worse in the second, and the Utes only rushed for four yards.

Oregon State started to drive the ball in that third quarter and took advantage of a couple of Utah mistakes. But after being called for offsides and, later, pass interference, the defense made up for it by holding the Beavers to just a field goal to make the score 14-3.

OSU tried to catch the Utes off-guard with an onside kick on the ensuing kickoff, but they weren’t fooled and got the ball on the 45-yard line. With decent field position, Utah failed to get 10 yards and turned the ball over after a fourth-down gamble, which the Beavers eventually turned into another field goal to make it 14-6 heading into halftime.

Things started to slow down in the second half for both teams. But late in the third quarter, Wilson finally started to get things going. He found Britain Covey for 26 yards and later had a 13-yard run to help the Utes move along.

This was not enough to get the Utes in the end zone. However, Andy Phillips nailed a 49-yard field goal at the beginning of the fourth quarter to go up 17-6.

The defense failed to record any sacks for the majority of the night until quarterback-turned-safety freshman Chase Hansen came out of nowhere to sack Nick Mitchell for a loss of nine yards.

On the return, Covey made a couple of quick spin moves, only to have the play negated because of a holding penalty. However, this didn’t stop the Utes moving forward. Wilson soon found Kenneth Scott for a 37-yard gain to get the Utes in the red zone. He then ran it in for Utah’s third touchdown of the game, putting the Utes on top 24-6.

Utah appeared to be in control of the game after this, but Jordan Villamin gained 74 yards for the Beavers, most of which came after the catch. Victor Bolden finished the job on third down for the Beaver’s first touchdown of the game, but OSU failed to complete the two-point conversion to make it 24-12.

Phillips eventually knocked in another field goal to get the final score of the game 27-12.

Jared Norris, who returned from injury to record nine tackles against Oregon State, said this was an emotional game going up against his former coach, Kalani Sitake. He was happy the Utes held the Beavers to just one touchdown in his return.

“It felt good to be back with my brothers,” Norris said. “Thankful I got to play.”

On offense, Booker finished the game with 121 yards rushing on 25 carries, and Wilson ended with 254 total yards through the air. Whittingham credits his offense for not giving the ball away.

“Our offense did an outstanding job taking care of the football,” Whittingham said.

The Utes head to Seattle to face Washington next weekend while sitting in the driver’s seat of the Pac-12 South.

[email protected]

@kbrenneisen

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