It’s been ten years since Oregon State won a game as a Top 25 ranked team and doing that at Arizona State where they were 1-19 on the road against the Sun Devils had to feel good. After holding Arizona State to a three-and-out on their opening possession of the game the Beavers got out to an early 7-0 lead at the end of their first possession, a 9 play 78 yard drive that ended in the Sun Devil end zone on a Damien Martinez TD run, one of two for him on the night while rushing 22 times for over half of Oregon State’s 222 yards on the ground. Freshman QB Ben Gulbranson picked up the other while rushing 9 times for 36 yards in addition to connecting on over 70% of his passes for 188 yards, 1 TD and no interceptions.
Arizona State Junior QB Trenton Bourquet was almost equally as accurate connecting on 20-of-32 for 122 yards and no interceptions but never found the end zone. The Sun Devils were more successful on the ground led by their talented Senior RB Xazavian Halladay who carried the ball more than half of their 25 attempts for 109 of their 154 total yards on the ground and the only TD all night long. Oregon State had the lead from start-to-finish in an easy 31-7 win aided by a defense that impeded the Sun Devil’s progress all night long while recording 66 tackles, 2 sacks, and 5 tackles for loss
As reported by Nick Daschel for the Oregonian/Oregon Live; “Damien Martinez is within reach of becoming the fourth Oregon State running back to crack 1,000 rushing yards as a freshman. Martinez ran for 138 yards against Arizona State, increasing his season total to 867. Martinez needs 123 more rushing yards against Oregon and the bowl game to hit 1,000. He would join Ken Simonton (1998), Jacquizz Rodgers (2008) and Jermar Jefferson (2018) as freshmen to accomplish the feat. Now consider how it happened. Simonton averaged 4.6 yards a carry on the way to 1,028 yards. Rodgers averaged 4.8 yards on the way to 1,253. Jefferson averaged 5.8 yards on the way to 1,380 yards. Martinez? He’s reached 867 yards on just 143 carries, an average of 6.1 yards per rushing play.”
Oregon State Head Coach Jonathan Smith who, as a Junior QB under Head Coach Dennis Erickson for the Beavers in 2000, led the team to their greatest year in school history, 11-1 with a win over Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl, deserves so much credit for building this team from the ground up over the last five seasons. As pointed out in the Oregonian; “The stats speak for themselves.” In Scoring Defense they have gone from allowing an average of 45.7 points per game in 2018 to just 20.3 this year; In Total Defense they have gone from allowing 536.8 yards per game to 330.6 yards and; In Rushing Defense they have gone from allowing 281.8 yards per game to 111.4 yards per game this year. In his game Oregon State had 15 more 1st Downs, 28-to-13; led in Pass Yards, 221-to-122; Rushing Yards, 222-to-154; and in Time-of-Possession by almost 9 minutes.
Huge in-state rivalry game next Saturday when the Oregon State Beavers will host the Oregon Ducks in Corvallis where they haven’t lost all year long. The stakes are high for the Ducks who will clinch a spot in the PAC-12 Conference Championship with a win. If they lose, they can still clinch a berth if Washington State beats Washington out in the Palouse at home in Pullman. Arizona State also has a rivalry game on the road at Arizona Stadium in Tucson where they’ll meet the Wildcats in a game known as the Duel in the Desert and play for what the NCAA has certified as the oldest rivalry trophy in college football—the Territorial Cup.