6A — BAKER CITY HERALD
MONDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2019
MOUNTAIN WEST CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
PAC-12 FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Ducks soar past Utah, 37-15,
to earn bid in the Rose Bowl
■ Oregon spoils Utes hopes for playoff berth and will play Wisconsin in Pasadena
Broncos handle
Hawaii, but left
out of top bowls
■ Despite finishing 12-1, the
Broncos fall short of the Cotton Bowl
and will play Washington in the
Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 21
By Jason Chatraw
By Josh Dubow
Associated Press
AP Sports Writer
BOISE — Jaylon Henderson started the season
third string on the quarterback depth chart. He
fi nished the year by hoisting the Mountain West
championship trophy after being selected the game
MVP.
The senior threw for 212 yards and two touch-
downs and ran for another score in No. 19 Boise
State’s 31-10 victory over Hawaii in the conference
championship game Saturday.
Boise State (12-1, No. 19 CFP) won its second con-
ference title in three years, beating Hawaii again this
season after winning the Oct. 12 meeting, 59-37.
Although the Broncos had hoped to qualify for the
Cotton Bowl as the top-ranked team from the Group
of 5 conferences, Memphis’ win over Cincinnati Sat-
urday ended that possibility.
Boise State will play Washington in the Las Vegas
Bowl on Dec. 21.
Henderson’s play-making ability sparked a lethar-
gic offense late in the fi rst half, though he almost
didn’t get a chance to make it happen.
Hank Bachmeier, the Broncos’ starting quarter-
back who hadn’t played since suffering an undis-
closed injury against San Jose State on Nov. 2, was
warming up on the sideline to possibly enter the
game late in the half.
But that all changed in 53 seconds when Hender-
son threw two touchdown strikes of 36 yards each to
Khalil Shakir and John Hightower.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. —
The one constant all season for
Utah was the ability to control
the trenches against any op-
ponent.
With a possible playoff berth
and fi rst Pac-12 title in school
history on the line, the Utes
more than met their match
against Oregon.
CJ Verdell ran for 208 yards
and broke open the game with
two long touchdown runs in
the fourth quarter, and No. 13
Oregon spoiled No. 5 Utah’s
playoff hopes with a 37-15 vic-
tory in the Pac-12 champion-
ship game Friday night.
“Unfortunately we came
up short tonight,” coach Kyle
Whittingham said. “Disap-
pointing thing is we lost
in the one area we’ve been
undefeated this year: line of
scrimmage. We didn’t win the
line of scrimmage for the fi rst
time all season, which is, like I
say, disappointing. Surprising
really.”
The Utes (11-2, No. 5 CFP)
came into the game hoping to
make a case for one of the four
playoff spots with a conference
title but instead got over-
matched by Oregon (11-2, No.
13 CFP) and lost their second
straight Pac-12 championship
game.
Utah held 11 of 12 oppo-
nents to less than 100 yards
rushing and led the nation by
allowing 56.3 yards rushing
Kyle Terada / USA Today Sports-TNS
Oregon Ducks quarterback Justin Herbert (10) passes the football against Utah Utes
defensive back Terrell Burgess (26) during the fi rst quarter at Levi’s Stadium Friday in
the Pac-12 Conference championship game.
per game, prompting plenty of
pregame talk about how the
Utes’ physical dominance could
be the determining factor.
The Ducks took that person-
ally and responded.
“Defi nitely put a little chip
on our shoulders,” Verdell said.
“We try not to focus on the out-
side noise too much. Hearing
they’re the most physical team
in the Pac-12 made us want to
come out here and work even
harder.”
The Utes fell into a 20-0
hole in the fi rst half and then
gave up a 70-yard TD run to
Verdell after cutting the defi cit
to 23-15.
“We didn’t really think far
ahead but it’s obvious what
was at stake, more than just
the Rose Bowl,” left tackle
Darrin Paulo said. “It’s disap-
pointing. I can’t really wrap my
head around it right now.”
Oregon will play Wisconsin
in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1.
Utah, meanwhile, will take
on Texas in the Alamo Bowl on
Dec. 31.
The Utes got back into the
game with TD passes from
Tyler Huntley to Zack Moss
and Samson Nacua in the
third quarter to cut the defi cit
to 23-15.
Utah then drove into Oregon
territory before Huntley was
sacked by Keyvon Thibodeaux
on second down, leading to a
punt on fourth-and-4 from the
40.
Verdell struck with his big
run fi ve plays later and added
a 31-yard score later in the
fourth against the nation’s top-
ranked run defense to put the
game out of reach.
That gave quarterback Jus-
tin Herbert and the rest of the
senior class a Rose Bowl berth
after starting their careers
with a 4-8 mark in 2016.
BMS intramural hoops wins
MILTON-FREEWA-
TER — A Baker Middle
Middle School intramural
boys basketball team beat
Mac-Hi’s C Team 44-8 on
Tuesday.
Chris Luna, Patrick
Bigler and Caleb Hills
each scored 6 points for
the Baker team coached
by Jimmy Howerton.
Brandon McCullough
and Kayden Garvin added
5 each, Graison Stone and
Ernesto Lopez-Villalvazo
had 4 each, and Izek
Cleveland added 2 points.
The BMS intramural
teams will play at home
Thursday at 4 p.m.