Last-second field goal gives UA 20-17 win

Weird things happen when the Territorial Cup is at stake. Alex Zendejas capped a wacky fourth quarter with a 32-yard field goal as time expired to give the Arizona Wildcats (7-5, 5-3) a heart-stopping 20-17 victory over their hated rivals from Arizona State (4-8, 2-7) yesterday.

Even though the offense was virtually useless in the second half, the Wildcats made enough big plays in the first 30 minutes to give them enough of a cushion against the upset-minded Sun Devils.

Traditionally, the underdog tends to play spoiler in this matchup, but the Cats managed to escape Tempe with the Territorial Cup — the nation’s longest rivalry trophy, dating back to 1899.

The win marks the first time Arizona has beaten ASU in back-to-back seasons (UA won 31-10 last year) since 1997-98, going back to those formidable “Desert Swarm” teams.

Zendejas bounced back from a bad miss from earlier in the afternoon from 30 yards to come back and bury the game winner. It’s been an up-and-down season for Zendejas, who has a pair of four field-goal games to his credit, but missed a crucial kick against Oregon that would’ve kept that game from going into overtime.

The Cats managed to pull out the win despite a season-worst outing from the offense, which gained only 265 yards of total offense — well below its average of 430 yards per outing.

Nick Foles completed 24-43 passes for a meager 148 yards (3.4 yards per attempt) and no touchdowns. With the exception of the Washington State blowout where Foles was taken out in the second quarter, it was Foles’ lowest output since taking over the starting job.

Arizona State’s formidable defensive line got steady pressure on Foles and swallowed up Arizona’s short-pass attack. Without Nic Grigsby (shoulder) or David Douglas (thigh) available, the Cats were struggling to make plays through the air (the longest pass play was only 16 yards).

Keola Antolin opened the scoring with a 67-yard run up the middle of the ASU defense. Once Antolin got to the second level, no Sun Devil had a chance to catch him. Besides that play, however, the Cats picked up only 50 yards on the ground.

The Sun Devils didn’t fare much better against the fired-up UA defense. Starting quarterback Samson Szakascy was benched midway through the second quarter, as he failed to move ASU’s offense whatsoever.

Senior Danny Sullivan took over and nearly put together an impressive comeback in his final game at ASU. His numbers weren’t spectacular (14-28, 168 yards), but he did hit wide receiver Kyle Williams for two scores, including a stunning 14-yard grab in the back of the end zone that tied the game with two minutes to play.

Arizona’s comeback effort stalled, forcing the Cats to punt for the ninth time that afternoon. Williams tried to peek ahead, but forgot to bring the ball with him. Mike Turner fell on it to set up Zendejas’ game winner.

It was the second special teams miscue of the afternoon for ASU. Arizona special teams ace Orlando Vargas blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown late in the second quarter.

Arizona will close out the regular season against USC on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. on ABC, the Wildcats’ third consecutive nationally televised game.

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