Beavers rally for solid win; Jackson OK

By Brooks Hatch
Staff writer

CORVALLIS — Oregon State won a football game by defeating New Mexico State 28-16 on Saturday before the now-customary sellout crowd at Reser Stadium.

A bigger victory, though, was the news that junior tailback Steven Jackson's left knee wasn't thought to be seriously injured. The Beavers' offensive lynchpin, who will undergo an MRI examination today, suffered a suspected sprained medial collateral ligament when he was tackled late in the fourth quarter near the OSU sideline.

Jackson wasn't available for comment afterward, but he was a major topic of discussion among Beavers who marveled at his 166-yard, two-touchdown performance against another defense that was specifically stacked up to stop him every time he touched the ball.

"He is our offense," sophomore linebacker Trent Bray said. "Without him we really can't move the ball. I can't say enough about him; he does it all."

The Beavers (2-1) rallied from a 13-point first-quarter deficit and finally put the stubborn Aggies (1-2) away by scoring twice in the third quarter to stretch a 14-13 halftime edge to 28-13. They never could quite put the Aggies away, but New Mexico State never got closer than two touchdowns after a 1-yard sneak by quarterback Derek Anderson sent OSU on top 28-13 with 2:13 left in the third quarter.

"It was a really horrible start, especially coming off how we played a week ago,'' OSU coach Mike Riley said, referring to the 16-14 loss at Fresno State on Sept. 5. "When we faced adversity (at Fresno) we lost our discipline. Today we just kept playing and got back into it.''

Jackson had the necessary help to power the Beavers to their 17th consecutive non-league triumph at Reser Stadium.

Anderson recovered from a shaky start — his unforced fumble on the third play was returned 22 yard for a touchdown — and completed 17 of 30 passes for 233 yards and a touchdown to tight end Tim Euhus. He also scored on a 1-yard dive.

Senior flanker James Newson had nine catches for 135 yards, and forced an end-zone interference penalty that resulted in a touchdown.

And the defense held its opponent to one touchdown for the third game in a row and was impregnable to everything except several gadget plays that resulted in the bulk of the Aggies' 259 total yards.

"It was a little surprising from the get-go, they just hit us really quick and jumped out to a big lead,'' defensive end Bill Swancutt said. "But I had confidence that we'd shut them down and that offensively we'd come back strong.''

That's exactly what happened. The Beavers scored two touchdowns in the second and third quarters, and all the Aggies had to show for the final 50 minutes was a 53-yard field goal by Dario Aguiniga with 9:41 remaining.

"As a team, when adversity came up we kept fighting," said Anderson, who was lambasted by boosters this past week — and booed sporadically Saturday — for throwing five interceptions at Fresno State.

"We struggled early offensively, but we kept it together and moved the ball.''

The Beavers were 9 for 15 on third downs, averaged 5.6 yards per play and had only six penalties — just three in the final 50 minutes — and were much more polished offensively than the previous week.

"I'd like to think that wasn't us,'' Riley said of the Fresno fiasco, when OSU converted one of 15 third-down situations and had 12 offensive penalties. "Today was a great example of playing efficiently, playing with tempo.

"It felt much better today, our attitude about adversity and about keeping on playing was different. But we're not where we're going to be, we have to get better.''

New Mexico State built its 13-0 lead on Greg Scaffidi's 22-yard fumble return and a 47-yard TD dash by Eric Higgins with 5:45 to play in the first quarter.

However, a second-quarter fumble recovery by Richard Seigler at the Aggie 33 got the Beavers going. Three Dwight Wright runs got the Beavers to the 1-yard line and Anderson found Euhus uncovered in the back of the end zone for the score with 9:24 left in the half.

Anderson's 34-yard completion to Newson set up the go-ahead score, Jackson's 4-yard run with 1:35 left in the half. Jackson scored again from 2-yard out with 10:14 to play in the third quarter for a 21-13 lead and Anderson's sneak with 2:13 left in the quarter gave OSU a 28-13 advantage.

Brooks Hatch can be reached at brooks.hatch@lee.net