John Mateer passed for one touchdown and rushed for two more as Washington State defeated Washington 24-19 in a neutral-site Apple Cup on a rainy Saturday afternoon at Lumen Field in Seattle, the home of the NFL’s Seahawks.
The Cougars (3-0) stopped Washington on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line with 1:07 remaining to preserve just their second victory in the past 14 rivalry games between the schools. WSU’s Kyle Thornton tackled Jonah Coleman for a 2-yard loss on the deciding option play.
The Huskies (2-1) had a 452-381 advantage in total yardage, but failed to finish drives and had to settle for four field goals by Grady Gross. Washington was penalized 16 times for 135 yards.
Mateer completed 17 of 34 passes for 245 yards and gained a team-high 62 yards on 16 carries.
The Huskies’ Will Rogers was 23-of-31 passing for 314 yards and a touchdown and Coleman rushed 14 times for 75 yards.
The Cougars took a 17-13 halftime lead as Mateer scored on runs of 23 and 25 yards. The latter came on a quarterback draw on third-and-20 with 21 seconds remaining in the half.
After turning the ball over on downs at Washington’s 10-yard line on their first possession, the Cougars opened the scoring on Dean Janikowski’s 44-yard field goal.
The Huskies answered with a 31-yard touchdown pass from Rogers to Giles Jackson, who caught eight passes for 162 yards.
Washington State regained the lead on Mateer’s 23-yard run.
The Huskies tied it at 10 on Gross’s 44-yard field goal on the opening play of the second quarter.
Gross added a 42-yarder to put the Washington up 13-10 before Mateer’s late score.
Gross kicked a 24-yarder on the Huskies’ opening possession of the second half to trim WSU’s lead to 17-16.
Mateer threw a 16-yard scoring strike to Josh Meredith to make it 24-16 with 5:44 left in the third quarter.
Gross added a 43-yarder on the final play of the third to pull the Huskies within 24-19.
–Field Level Media