The University of Arizona football team (4-2, 1-2 in Big 12) fell to a close 33-27 loss against No. 18 BYU on Saturday, Oct. 11, at 5 p.m. at Arizona Stadium. Arizona had the opportunity to come away with an upset, but collapsed in the final minutes of regulation as BYU scored a rushing touchdown in the second overtime period.
Though the weather forecast put on fear of the game being moved up or pushed back due to Hurricane Priscilla, kick-off proceeded at its scheduled time. However, the game was delayed before the start of the second quarter due to a weather delay with lightning in the area.
Redshirt junior quarterback Noah Fifita threw for 219 yards and 2 touchdowns, including a 35-yard strike to wide receiver Chris Hunter. Arizona totaled 164 rushing yards, highlighted by Kedrick Reescano’s 36-yard touchdown run. The Wildcats’ red zone saw extreme efficiency, being nearly perfect as they converted on key opportunities.
“It’s getting back to work, it’s getting back to redline, it’s getting back to the things that got us off to a 4-1 start, you know? It’s what gave us a chance to beat the No. 18 team in the country tonight. I know we didn’t do it, but we’re right there knocking on the door,” head coach Brent Brennan said. “As disheartening as tonight was, to me there’s a lot of positives in that game and we need to be excited about that too. I want us to be pissed off about how that thing ended, we should be. But, we should be excited about also the fact we stood toe-to-toe with one of the most physical teams in our conference and slugged it out into double overtime.”
Offense
Beginning the game, BYU did its best to make its way up the field but failed to complete a pass thrown by Bear Bachmeier. Despite some faulty plays by the Cougars, Arizona also found itself with a slow start, dropping a pass by Fifita and barely punting the ball 41 yards. Arizona attempted to find its way into BYU territory after the Cougars scored a touchdown, with Reescano rushing 17 yards up the middle.
After the Cougars scored back-to-back touchdowns, Arizona put itself in position to try and move up the ball as much as it could. Fifita completed two passes, followed by Quincy Craig rushing up the middle for a combined 20 yards and two plays to put Arizona in scoring position.
Soon after, Fifita threw for 17 yards as wide receiver Kris Hutson was able to catch the ball in the endzone to put Arizona on the board 14-7. Just as Arizona found momentum, Hurricane Priscilla had other plans, casting a weather delay for over an hour.
Arizona’s next points came from a 24-yard field goal attempt, kicked by Michael Salgado-Medina, putting the Wildcats within reach of the 14-10 score. BYU had the opportunity to put themselves further ahead, but kicker Will Ferrin missed the 42-yard field goal attempt, kicking just left of the goal post.
With 40 seconds remaining in the first half as rain poured down, Fifita completed a 35-yard pass to find Hunter in the endzone for a touchdown. Directly after, Salgado-Medina kicked a successful field goal attempt to put the Wildcats in front for the first time in the game, 17-14.
The Cougars did their best to run up the ball with the time remaining in the first half. Unfortunately for them, defensive back Treydan Stukes intercepted a pass intended for Parker Kingston, causing a BYU turnover with 18 seconds left, as Arizona made its way to the turnover sword, stabbing what was once the Cougar’s football. The Wildcats went into halftime leading the Cougars 17-14.
Entering the fourth quarter, the Wildcats had no intention of slipping up or slowing down. As Arizona fought through multiple tackles, Reescano ran for 36-yards, gaining another touchdown to put Arizona further in the lead 24-14.
The Wildcats were in a poised position in the fourth quarter, but defensive back Michael Dansby was called for two pass interference penalties, allowing BYU to tie the game with 19 seconds remaining.
In the overtime period, Arizona attempted to score a touchdown but was flagged for holding. The Wildcats ended up kicking the ball 23 yards to extend their lead 27-24.
With BYU gaining a one possession lead in overtime, Fifita intended to complete a pass to Javin Whatley in the left corner of the endzone but just overthrew the ball as the Cougars came away with the 33-27 victory.
Defense
Despite a pass by Bachmeier being broken up by Stukes, the next Cougar play put BYU in position for a 28-yard touchdown scored by running back LJ Martin. With less than 9 minutes left in the first quarter, the Cougars took an early 7-0 lead after a successful kick attempt by Ferrin.
Minutes later, BYU gained another touchdown, this time sprinting 75 yards as Parker Kingston gave the Cougars a 14-0 advantage. Minutes into the third quarter, a member of Arizona’s defensive line, Keanu Tanuvasa was disqualified for targeting.
After a bad snap by BYU, the Cougars quickly scrambled to pass the ball. Arizona’s defensive instincts jumped out as defensive back Dalton Johnson intercepted the pass with 16 seconds left to go in the third quarter, another turnover for BYU.
Due to a 24-yard field goal taken by BYU, the Cougars were within a possession of the score, 24-17 with just over 4 minutes remaining in the game.
With multiple defensive plays called for pass interference, BYU had multiple opportunities to score the ball, which they did with 19 seconds left in the game as Bachmeier ran up the middle for two yards, tying the game at 24. With the clock running out of time, the game went into an overtime period.
Despite Arizona lifting its lead in the overtime period, BYU evened out the score at 27 after converting on a 45-yard field goal attempt.
Shortly after, Bachmeier ran for a 4-yard touchdown, allowing the Cougars to gain a 33-27 lead to put away the game. The loss puts Arizona at 1-2 in conference play this season as the Wildcats couldn’t come up with stops in overtime.
“Going into it, we knew it was going to be a physical battle, that was one of those things we talked about all week. We knew our effort was going to have to be redline and the thing that’s so hard about it, is that we didn’t get it done,” Brennan said. “I thought our defense played their tails off, you know, held them scoreless for two quarters, that hadn’t happened in 30+ quarters […]. Obviously it’s still pretty fresh and pretty raw, so that’s the hard part for me right now, standing up here in front of everybody but I’m proud of this football team, I think we’re making progress, I’m sick about the result tonight but I believe in these players, I believe in these coaches and I’m excited about what’s coming the next couple weeks.”
Looking ahead
The Wildcats head on the road to visit the University of Houston, where Arizona will take on a new set of Cougars on Saturday, Oct. 18, at 9 a.m. at TDECU Stadium in Houston, Texas. The game will be streamed on FS1.
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