Beavers Fall To Arizona State, 41-24

Saturday, October 20

Tempe, Arizona

7:00 PM

Oregon State

2-4 , 1-3

Arizona St

4-2 , 1-2

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

OREGON STATE

Arizona State

October 20, 2001 | Football

Box Score

By: TBD

Oct 21, 2001

Final Stats

Arizona St. 41, Oregon St. 24

By MEL REISNER
AP Sports Writer

TEMPE, Ariz. - The big things predicted for Delvon Flowers came true against Oregon State.

Flowers, who missed last season because of a knee injury, ran for 226 yards and two touchdowns as Arizona State beat the Beavers 41-24 Saturday night.

He scored on runs of 74 and 28 yards in the biggest game by an Arizona State running back in the last 28 years, and the sixth-best ever. His yardage on 23 carries was the most since Ben Malone set the record of 250 against Oregon State in 1973.

"I don't know what to say," Flowers said. "I owe it to my line and (fullback) Mike Karney. They did a great job getting up there, laying their pads down and pushing the defense back."

Jeff Krohn threw a 63-yard pass that the receiver, Shaun McDonald, turned in another score when he recovered his own fumble in the end zone, Justin Taplin threw a 23-yard TD pass on a trick play and Tom Pace scored on an 11-yard run.

Mike Barth had two field goals for the Sun Devils (4-2, 1-2 Pac-10).

Jonathan Smith threw a 40-yard scoring pass to Tim Euhus and a 7-yarder to James Newson for the Beavers (2-4, 1-3), and Ken Simonton scored on a 1-yard run.

But Simonton, who topped 1,000 yards each of his first three seasons, was held to 61 yards on 21 attempts - the fourth game in six in which he has failed to go over 100.

"Sometimes you run good when you've got someplace to go, and sometimes it's pretty hard to go anywhere," Beavers coach Dennis Erickson said.

The game hinged on the Beavers' failure to stop Arizona State's running attack. Pace had 84 yards on 10 carries, and the Sun Devils got 314 of their 522-yard total offense on the ground.

"Delvon was hurt in (training camp)," coach Dirk Koetter said. "He had a groin and then the hamstring. But I think the whole coaching staff had a good feeling about him this week, because he was doing it in practice, and Tom Pace did a great job of spelling him."

Krohn, playing on a sore ankle he sprained in the first quarter at Southern California a week earlier, made two mistakes that allowed Oregon State to take a 24-20 lead in the third quarter.

The Beavers went three-and-out after Terrell Roberts picked off a pass by Krohn at the Oregon State 44.

But the punt forced Arizona State to start from its 20, Krohn fumbled the first snap and Richard Siegler recovered on the 20.

Smith started a four-play drive with an 11-yard pass to Newson and capped it with a 7-yard scoring throw.

McDonald scored on a 65-yard play.

He caught the ball over the fingertips of Roberts at the Oregon State 30, kept his balance and raced to the 3, where safety Jake Cookus tackled him and he fumbled. But McDonald bounced up first and dived on the ball in the end zone for a TD that cut Arizona State's deficit to 14-10 with 5:17 left in the first quarter.

"I didn't see anybody going to get it, so I just ran and jumped on it," McDonald said.

Barth kicked his second field goal on the final play of the first quarter, but Oregon State's Noah Happe blocked his third attempt - ending Barth's string of 12 field goals without a miss midway through the second quarter.

Late in the half, Newson made a circus catch of his own, diving for the ball between two defenders for a 41-yard gain, to set up a 40-yard field goal by Ryan Cesca that sent the Beavers to a 17-13 halftime lead.

But Flowers, held to 19 yards on eight carries in the first half, burst up the middle and ran 74 yards 23 seconds into the third quarter to give Arizona State a 20-17 lead.

Newson's TD grab sent the Beavers ahead again, but Flowers' second score - set up by Taplin's 62-yard punt return - gave the Sun Devils the lead for good, 27-24, with 10:39 left.

"In the second half they put our defense in a tough situation," Smith said. "We weren't able to sustain a drive, and we weren't able to hit on our big plays."