University of Washington
Oregon
Huskies Win Pac-10 Opener
October 02, 1999 | Football
Oct. 2, 1999
By JIM COUR
AP Sports Writer
SEATTLE (AP) - After opening their season with losses against BYU and Air Force, Rick Neuheisel's first Washington Huskies team appears to have turned around its season.
Who knows? Maybe these Huskies are going to improve enough to be contenders in the watered-down Pac-10 for a trip to the Rose Bowl.
Marques Tuiasosopo threw three touchdown passes and the Huskies opened their Pac-10 season with a 34-20 victory over No. 25 Oregon on Saturday night.
"Hopefully, we can keep building on this because the conference is wide open," said Neuheisel, Washington's coach. "We have set a goal to win the Pac-10 Conference."
Willie Hurst, Washington's No. 1 tailback, rushed for 161 yards on 30 carries, including a 4-yard touchdown run, and fullback Pat Conniff had a 9-yard scoring run in the third quarter.
After beating Colorado, Neuheisel's former school, last week, the Huskies looked even better this week.
"There's been so many upsets already," said Hurst of the early Pac-10 race. "Let's just hope that 1 and 0 leads to 2 and 0 leads to 3 and 0."
Tuiasosopo had seven turnovers in his previous two starts, but had none this time as the Huskies played mistake-free football before a crowd of 72,581.
In the the fourth night game in the history of Husky Stadium, the junior quarterback completed 17-of-21 passes for 211 yards, including a 24-yarder to Gerald Harris for a touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter that put the Huskies (2-2) ahead 27-13.
Tuiasosopo also passed for two touchdowns to tight end Jerramy Stevens, a 3-yarder in the first quarter and an 8-yarder with 2:15 to go.
Washington's offensive line was the most suspect aspect of the team that Neuheisel inherited from former coach Jim Lambright, but the Huskies controlled Oregon's defensive line.
"My job is easy," said Tuiasosopo, son of former NFL defensive lineman Manu Tuiasosopo. "The offensive line does all the dirty work. They're in control of the offense."
Oregon (3-2 overall, 1-1 Pac-10) lost to Washington for only the second time in six seasons after winning two in a row in Seattle.
A.J. Feeley, Akili Smith's successor at quarterback for the Ducks, was 24-for-32 for 371 yards, including a touchdown.
But the Ducks came up short in their running game, getting only 62 yards on the ground. Their top two running backs, Reuben Droughns and Herman Ho-Ching, missed the game with injuries.
"It does make the offense easier for us when we run the ball," Feeley said. "But we had to play with the players we had this week."
Washington utilized a ball-control offense that kept the Ducks' offense off the field enough for the Huskies to win the game. The Huskies went 74, 80, 78, 71 and 71 yards for touchdowns and controlled the ball for 38 1/2 minutes to Oregon's 21 1/2.
Washington led 13-10 at halftime after being stung on the fourth play of the game by a 59-yard touchdown pass from Feeley to Keenan Howry with 1:55 gone.
The Huskies tied it 7-7 on Tuiasosopo's 3-yard TD pass to Stevens and Hurst put them ahead to stay with a 4-yard run with 8:27 left in the opening half.
Ahead 13-10 at halftime, Washington took the opening second-half kickoff and drove for a touchdown with some help from the Ducks. Oregon's Sonny Cook was called for a personal foul for roughing punter Ryan Fleming. That gave Washington a first down and kept alive its 78-yard TD drive that ended with Conniff scoring.
Oregon coach Mike Bellotti blamed Cook's penalty on too much enthusiasm.
"Cook is from Washington (Des Moines, near Seattle). He was excited and he wanted to make a play," Bellotti said.
The Huskies played without cornerback Anthony Vontoure, who has two of the team's three interceptions in its first three games. Vontoure was suspended before the game for violation of team rules.
