As the crowd squeezed out the last bit of sun before the rainy season, the Oregon State Beavers (0-4, 0-0 Pac-12) made the hour trek south to Eugene to face the No. 6-ranked Oregon Ducks (4-0, 1-0 Big Ten) for the I-5 showdown.
With eight minutes left in the third quarter, the Ducks were up 21-7 and were faced with the opportunity to blow the game open with the ball on the Beaver 13-yard line. Sophomore quarterback Dante Moore took the snap in shotgun, dropped back to pass, fired and completed to an unlikely source, freshman wide receiver Jeremiah McClellan, for the touchdown. This was McClellan’s first touchdown of his career and made it 21 unanswered for the Oregon crew as they cruised to a 41-7 stomping that continued their perfect 4-0 season.
“It felt amazing to score a touchdown for the Ducks,” McClellan said. “To hear all the fans yelling, being excited with my brothers out there, it was amazing. Fantastic.”
Moore led the offensive charge for the Ducks as he tossed four touchdowns with 21 completions on 31 attempts. The effort dialed him up to 305 yards on the day. This was a career-high passing touchdown mark for Moore, who notched another career high with 53 rushing yards on seven attempts.
Oregon was coming off another dominant win as they traveled to Chicago last week to take on the Northwestern Wildcats. Oregon took care of business as they nabbed the 34-14 victory.
On the other end, the Beavers were coming off a gut-punch loss to the Texas Tech Red Raiders in a 45-14 road beatdown that continued their slide.
The Ducks wasted no time finding the scoring early. On the seventh play of the opening drive, the Moore to Moore connection reignited as freshman wide receiver Dakorien Moore muscled his defender away to make a catch, then reach for the goal line and score. The extra point from senior kicker Atticus Sappington was true, and Oregon was up 7-0 with 12:15 to go in the first.
An Oregon State punt and a Ducks turnover on downs followed, but the Beavers were able to knot it up after a lengthy 14-play drive that was capped off by a rushing touchdown at the goal line from senior running back Anthony Hankerson.
Both teams traded punts until Oregon mustered up a long drive of its own. The Ducks drove down to the Beaver 23-yard line, then Moore found his favorite target, junior tight end Kenyon Sadiq, for a lob pass touchdown right in the bread basket. Sappington knocked the extra point through to give Oregon the lead again.
The Ducks’ defense forced another punt, and the offense got right back to work. The highly discussed depth of the Oregon running back room was on display this drive as the touchdown machine, freshman running back Jordan Davison, snuck into the endzone for his fifth of the season. The extra point sailed through to make it 21-7 Ducks.
McClellan’s touchdown in the third quarter made it 28-7 Oregon, but the highlight of the drive came earlier when the Ducks faced a 4th and 4 in their own territory. Senior punter James Ferguson-Reynolds lined up to kick it away, but saw an opening to the right. Reynolds took advantage of the rare opportunity and decided to fake the punt and dash through the gap for the electric first down that ended with a slide. Freshman kicker Gage Hurych banged home the extra point after the eventual score.
“It was awesome, it was fun,” Reynolds said. “I went out there for a normal punt, grabbed the ball, saw a big gap, and thought why not take it? Never ran in my life, so that’s where the slide came in, and I had a little bit of fun there. I thought I was a bit of a football player for five minutes. Just saw some space and took it.”
Punts continued to plague the Beaver squad as Oregon found itself with the ball again after a three-and-out. The Ducks stalled out in Oregon State territory and settled for three, and Sappington continued his perfect day.
In the next Oregon sequence of work, Moore showed off the cannon. On the Beaver’s 49-yard line, Moore fired deep to senior wide receiver Gary Bryant Jr., who reeled it in and zoomed by defenders right into the endzone to make it 38-7.
Back-to-back punts then followed, but action arose again when Oregon State sophomore quarterback Gabarri Johnson fumbled and Ducks junior defensive lineman Bear Alexander recovered.
This set up the final scoring of the game as Sappington stayed excellent and hit a 28-yard field goal to make it 41-7, which would be the final.
“When you try to fight with your big brother, you can put up a little fight in the beginning like they did in the first quarter,” senior linebacker Bryce Boettcher said. “But usually after four quarters, or four rounds, big brother usually wins.”
Chipping in the most for the Oregon run game was junior running back Jayden Limar, who had 12 carries for 70 yards.
Next up for the Ducks is arguably the game of the year. Oregon will have to flip a switch and go from the lower teams they’ve played so far to the No. 2-ranked team in the land. The Ducks will travel to University Park, Pennsylvania, to take on the Penn State Nittany Lions in a white out atmosphere at Beaver Stadium. That game will be on Sept. 27 at 4:30 p.m.
“The switch is already flipped,” Oregon head coach Dan Lanning said.