Oregon Ducks Stun Arizona in 2OT

Sports News - November 22nd, 2009 - Written by John

With every conference picture clear, there was only Oregon left to join the party. With all of the college football world now turning it's attention west, the Ducks put on a show that was, if nothing else, entertaining. Jeremi Masoli scored two touchdowns in overtime, including a one-yard game-winning rush in double OT to beat Arizona, 44-41.

The win set up a winner-take-all showdown against hated rival Oregon State next week, with the victor earning the Civil War trophy and the conference title. Oregon hasn't made it to the Rose Bowl since 1995.

Masoli only went 9-for-13 for 77 yards through the air, but he did have six total touchdowns and three touchdowns on each of his team's last three drives to pull out the win. It was his one-yard plunge that ended it, eliminating the Wildcats from conference contention, and silencing a previously raucus crown adorned in red.

Down seven with less than a minute left in regulation, Masoli drove the Ducks down to the Wildcats' eight, and found Ed Dickson with six seconds left to tie it at 31-all.

Then the quarterback took the ball to start overtime and promptly found Jeff Maehl in the back of the end zone to take a daunting lead, Oregon's first since the second quarter. After Arizona stormed back with a touchdown on it's first possession in extra time, benefiting from a facemask penalty during a third-down incompletion, it was on Masoli again.

Arizona could only manage a field goal in the second overtime, and it's defense melted away on Oregon's possession. Giving way to a series of runs up the middle, and a 22 yard pass to Dickson, Arizona was pushed back to it's own one. That's when Masoli pounded home the game winner.

"I was just resolved," Masoli said. "I'm just really happy with the result and really proud of our guys. They just played their hearts out the whole time."

It was heartbreak for the Wildcats, who led nearly the entire way, and by as much as 10 early in the fourth quarter. The home team scored 24 unanswered points to take the commanding lead, capped by a five-yard touchdown strike from Nick Foles to William Wright.

"It [upsets] you for the most part because you let opportunities like that slip away," Arizona free safety Cam Nelson. "It's hard to know you could have won a game, or you were supposed to win a game, and then you end up losing."

Indeed, it was destined to be Masoli's night. He tied the game with back-to-back scoring drives, then answered his biggest call when Arizona reclaimed the lead on a 71-yard scoring connection between Foles and Juron Criner. The touchdown put Arizona up seven with seven minutes left, and had the ball with the lead later in the quarter. Looking to simply run out the clock, or stick the dagger in with another touchdown, Foles threw a costly interception in the end zone to Oregon's Talmadge Jackson III to set up Masoli's heroics.

The Ducks have become the third team in conference history to score 40 points in five-straight conference games.

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