Local

Arizona State drops Washington 35-30

SEATTLE — Rachaad White rushed for 184 yards and two touchdowns and Arizona State erased a 14-point deficit to beat Washington 35-30 on Saturday night.

The Sun Devils used a 9-minute, 20-play drive to pull within three midway through the fourth quarter, then completed the comeback on White’s 10-yard touchdown run with 1:11 left. Arizona State (7-3, 5-2 Pac-12) remains in contention for a spot in the Pac-12 championship game with two games left.

UW (4-6, 3-4) must win both of its remaining games to reach bowl eligibility. Trying to avoid their first losing season since 2009, the Huskies turned turmoil into motivation as they jumped to a 14-0 lead without suspended head coach Jimmy Lake and with new offensive coordinator Junior Adams, the wide receivers coach who was replacing the fired John Donovan. But many of the problems that have plagued Washington this season re-emerged as mistakes proved costly.

Morris outraced the Sun Devils defense to the pylon on a bootleg to make it 14-0 with 5:06 left in the first quarter. He was 7 of 9 for 67 yards on the first two drive and the Huskies had 127 yards in the first 10 minutes of the game.

UW stalled out from there, however, after interim coach Bob Gregory decided to insert freshman quarterback Sam Huard into the game. Huard, the nation’s top-rated pro-style quarterback coming out of high school, guided the Huskies to a first down. But UW punted three plays later and the team never regained the kinetic energy it had in the first 10 minutes.

Morris finished with just 151 total yards passing, and ASU put the game out of reach with a pick-6 with 32 seconds left.

HUARD NOTE

Huard saw the most playing time of his true freshman season, appearing in three series in his third game this season. He completed 3 of 5 for 20 yards and handed the ball off nine consecutive times on UW’s final scoring drive at the end of the third. He’s still eligible for his redshirt.

THE TAKEAWAY

Arizona State: The Sun Devils were 0 for 8 on third and fourth down midway through the third quarter, but converted three third downs and two fourth downs the rest of the way to earn the victory. Though they have two conference games left, Utah holds the head-to-head tiebreaker.

Washington: Jackson was a constant source of electricity for the Huskies, setting them up with momentum at the start of key drives in a game they had to win to remain in the hunt for a postseason bowl. He finished with 103 total return yards, including 83 on kickoffs.

UP NEXT

Arizona State: At Oregon State next Saturday.

Washington: At Colorado next Saturday.