 "Photo: Sarah Gillihan | THE DAILY BAROMETER")
With the way the season has gone for Oregon State University, everyone could have easily given up.
Going into the last home game in the seniors' careers, the Beavers were at 2-8 — by far the seniors' worst season in Corvallis.
But on Senior Day, for the final game in front of the home crowd of Reser Stadium, OSU, particularly the seniors, showed they weren't going to roll over.
"Without [the seniors'] kind of perseverance and their toughness really to stay with it, we had no chance to do this today," said Oregon State head coach Mike Riley. "When you're doing as badly as we are on the record side of it, if your seniors don't stay in it, you're done."
OSU's 38-21 win over the University of Washington was its best win of the year.
After the Huskies scored within the first four minutes of the game to take an early 7-0 lead, Oregon State scored 14 first-quarter points and never looked back.
One of those two first-quarter touchdowns was a 6-yard pass from quarterback Sean Mannion to sophomore wide receiver Micah Hatfield. Not only was it Hatfield's first career touchdown, it was his first career reception.
"It was funny because when we [were] coming out of the tunnel I said, ‘Let's get this touchdown,'" said senior wide receiver James Rodgers. "That's a guy that's been under my wing for a while now, so I'm happy to see him get his first touchdown."
Hatfield had barely seen any game action because of a broken thumb he suffered back in fall camp.
Stopping the run was the priority for the Beavers on defense. After being shredded by opposing rushing attacks in the last three games, keeping Washington tailback Chris Polk (12th in the nation in rushing) in check was going to be a tough task.
It started off looking like more of the same. Polk rushed for 57 yards on 12 carries in the first quarter.
"It was scary," Riley said of Polk's big start. "I was going: ‘This is going to be a long day again.'"
But, after that first quarter, the defense of Oregon State found some consistency and held Polk to just 52 yards for the rest of the game.
"Today it just came together, everything I think," said senior safety Lance Mitchell. "We really felt bad about last week, and we really made it personal, a personal thing to come out this week and stop the run."
The defense of OSU also gave Nick Montana a rough outing in his first career start. The redshirt freshman completed just over 50 percent of his passes for only 79 yards. Montana threw two touchdowns, but was intercepted once and sacked four times. Standout redshirt freshman defensive end Scott Crichton recorded two of those sacks.
Oregon State's offense still deserves a lot of credit. The previous three games, the Beavers only managed to score 8, 13 and 6 points respectively. Saturday's 38 points are the kind of offensive synergy this team has wanted all year.
It all started under center. Mannion threw for 339 yards and two touchdowns, while throwing one interception.
"We made some big plays," Mannion said, mentioning Markus Wheaton's 56-yard reverse and Obum Gwacham's 58-yard catch. "We just did a good job kind of chipping away, just kept executing, and I think it was a pretty well-played game."
Wheaton also excelled Saturday, catching seven passes for 125 yards.
On a day filled with excitement over the Senior Day victory, one senior in particular has something extra to be thrilled about.
Rodgers broke the Oregon State school record for career receptions. His four receptions Saturday put him at 222 for the career, two more than former record-holder Mike Hass.
"I was happy, but at the same time, I was still trying to focus on the game because I didn't want to get caught up in that too much," Rodgers said.
"It's special," Mitchell said. "On a day like this, for him to get the record and do that is big. I'm proud of him, and I know he's going to do big things after Oregon State."
Rodgers suffered an ankle injury in the second quarter, just shortly after breaking the record. He sat out the rest of the game, but already told Riley he's playing in the Civil War next week.
This isn't the season the seniors thought they'd go out on, but the Senior Day win against Washington as their last home game at least salvages this season to a degree.
"It feels amazing, especially with the way the season's going," said senior left tackle Mike Remmers. "I'm really happy to go out with a bang and give all over Beaver Nation something to be proud of. Reser Stadium's a great atmosphere, I love playing here, and I'm going to miss it so much."
Warner Strausbaugh, sports writer
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