(Photo: Haley Spracale/WCSN)
TEMPE – While not pretty, Arizona State Football’s final home game of the season was a fitting end to a chaotic 2022 season for the program. ASU (3-8, 2-6 Pac-12) entered the day with a lot of emotional motivation for its game against the No. 23 ranked Oregon State Beavers (8-3, 5-3 Pac-12). Saturday’s game was homecoming and senior day, adding more value to the game.
However, poor run defense and a struggle of moving the chains led to a lopsided 31-7 victory for the Beavers that rang the final bell at Sun Devil Stadium.
“We played very disappointingly [on] all phases,” interim head coach Shaun Aguano said. “They played hard, but it was disappointing on all sides.”
Saturday’s home finale was ASU’s first game against OSU in Tempe since 2018. The Sun Devils usually garner success at their home stadium, being undefeated against the Beavers since 2009. The running game was the common theme for the program’s success as they are 4-0 in games with 150 yards rushing ore more since 2013 against OSU.
Despite past success against the Beavers on the ground, the Sun Devils seemed uncomfortable feeding the run early on. An obstacle in the ground attack was the changes in the offensive line, with senior LaDarius Henderson and redshirt junior Ben Scott nursing injuries that held them out of Saturday’s game. The missing pieces certainly didn’t help, as the Beavers have the best statistical run defense in the Pac-12, allowing 107.6 opponent rushing yards per game.
The Sun Devils opened up the game with three straight passes, which resulted in a three-and-out, and gave the ball to a Beavers team that fed the ball to freshman running back Damien Martinez. Coming off four straight 100-yard games, Martinez looked confident against ASU’s run defense that had allowed three consecutive 100-yard performances from other opponent’s starting running backs.
Martinez used his elusiveness to storm OSU down the field to earn an 11-yard touchdown run for an opening drive touchdown. The Sun Devils struggled the entire first half to stop the Beavers’ offense that faced little resistance on the ground. ASU only forced two third downs against OSU by halftime, and while it stopped the Beavers both times, the program still allowed 14 first downs.
“We weren’t following through with our tackles,” Aguano said. “We got them pinned up, and they were running right through our tackles, and that’s not good. A couple of times, we have them jump in the backfield, and then they squirt it out, and that’s just from a fundamental standpoint.”
After witnessing the Beavers’ success in the run game, the Sun Devils started feeding the rock to graduate running back Xazavian Valladay. Entering Saturday’s contest, OSU did not allow a team to rush for 100 yards since Week 5 against Utah. However, that didn’t stop Valladay from showcasing his power against the Beavers’ front seven, rushing for 109 of ASU’s 154 yards.
Valladay provided a jolt of energy to a sluggish offense on a 39-yard run down the sideline in the final two minutes of the second quarter. Valladay pounded in the Sun Devils’ first score on an 11-yard touchdown run to tie the game 7-7. In all of ASU’s three wins this season, Valladay had surpassed the 100-yard mark, a good indicator of the offensive game plan, with the graduate finishing the first half with 74 yards.
“I thought we were able to run the football well. They were sitting on a lot of stuff with a couple of drives,” Aguano said. “Valladay is special. He’s a workhorse, and he’s going to do whatever it takes, and I’m proud of him.”
However, instead of entering the locker room with good spirits, the Sun Devils allowed a 75-yard drive in 53 seconds by the Beavers’ offense to put them ahead once again entering the half. The drive deflated ASU’s momentum and later proved to be the final nail in the Sun Devils’ coffin, as OSU scored another touchdown to start the second half and never looked back.
The Beavers’ third quarter was dominant. Building off the ground game’s success, OSU kept feeding Martinez to great prevail as he surpassed 100 yards early in the second half, finishing the game with 138 yards and two touchdowns. The freshman accounted for one of the two rushing touchdowns and added 11 first downs to its already high first-half total.
“From a defensive standpoint, we couldn’t stop them,” Aguano said. “From an offensive standpoint, we couldn’t get anything going, and we had to play catch up.”
ASU’s run defense allowed 5.3 yards per carry against OSU and continued its struggle to force third downs by letting big yardage plays in the first two downs. The Beavers would finish the night with 222 yards rushing, marking the sixth time ASU allowed more than 175 yards on the ground.
Matters worsened in the fourth quarter when redshirt sophomore DJ Taylor muffed a punt return, gifting the Beavers field position inside the red zone. The muffed punt encapsulated an afternoon of mistakes on both sides, whether with dropped passes or drives stalled due to penalties. ASU remains at the bottom of the conference in penalties yards, accumulating another 55 penalty yards on Saturday.
“It’s just awareness,” Aguano said. “We had penalties we couldn’t recover from, so it wasn’t good from an offensive standpoint, and I’ll take the blame for that.”
The loss ties ASU to the 1994 season for its worst winning percentage in program history and its worst conference winning percentage since 1942. Despite those discouraging statistics, Aguano and the Sun Devils are focused on next week, where they travel down south for the territorial cup against Arizona.
“People talk about a one-game season. This is truly now a one-game season for us,” Aguano said. “It’s an honor to be up here sitting as the head coach of Arizona State. Now to go play down south and play against the University of Arizona, who’s had a better season than in the past. It’s going to be a great game for us.”
While looking toward next week is a way to stay motivated to end the season strong, the loss still stings for seniors as they close the book of their final home game. A moment that graduate offensive lineman Des Holmes wanted to cherish as he returned to the field after the game to sit on the pitchfork midfield and soak his final moments in Sun Devils Stadium.
“You never want your last year to go like that,” redshirt fifth-year linebacker Kyle Soelle said. “But it is what it is. You don’t get to pick the cards you’re dealt. You just get to pick your attitude towards it.”
The sentiment weighs over the whole team as many Sun Devils stayed on the field after the game to soak in the spectacle of the Sun Devils one more time. With their college careers near the final page, those seniors are inspired to leave their mark in the ASU history books to keep the Territorial Cup in Tempe.
“It means a lot to me, and it means a lot to the local guys, and it means a lot to this school,” Soelle said. “All my eggs are in that basket next week. They’re a good team down south. If we don’t come prepared, they will embarrass us.”
