Washington State Crushes Colorado State 73-7 in Rushing Dominance

Washington State rushed for 535 yards and nine touchdowns on Saturday night at Gesa Field, routing Colorado State 73-7 in a dominant Pacific-12 Conference performance reported by wsucougars.com.

The Cougars put together a 38-point unanswered stretch across six scoring drives to improve to 2-8 overall and 1-5 in the Pac-12.

The ground game produced season highs for both rushing yards and touchdowns, while holding the Rams to 61 rushing yards. WSU also capitalized in the red zone with a season-high eight scores.

Game Highlights Opens in a new window

Kirby Vorhees led the offensive onslaught with season highs of 197 yards and four touchdowns on 12 carries. His performance featured a 98-yard touchdown run immediately following a goal-line stand where the Cougars stopped Colorado State on fourth-and-2 at the WSU 2-yard line with 55 seconds left in the first quarter.

Quarterback Owen Eshelman completed 13 of 14 passes for 135 yards and one touchdown, while adding 81 rushing yards and a season-high three rushing touchdowns. Maxwell Woods contributed 108 rushing yards and one touchdown on 15 carries, and Julian Dugger broke away for a 60-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.

Through the air, Branden Ganashamoorthy caught four passes for 80 yards and one touchdown, hauling in a 30-yard scoring strike from Eshelman to open the third quarter. Jack Stevens converted a season-high nine point-after-touchdown kicks and added a 33-yard field goal as time expired in the first half.

Call of the Game Opens in a new window

The Cougars opened the scoring with an 11-play, 80-yard drive capped by a 3-yard run from Vorhees. A fumble recovery by Matyus McLain in the final minute of the first quarter kept WSU ahead 14-0.

After Eshelman scored on runs of 4 and 9 yards and Vorhees added a 14-yard score in the second quarter, Colorado State got on the board with 38 seconds remaining before halftime. Wazzu promptly marched 60 yards in 38 seconds to set up Stevens’ field goal, taking a 38-7 lead into the locker room.

Defensively, WSU added two fourth-down stops and an interception by Jaylen Thomas. The defense also forced punts on both Colorado State possessions in the fourth quarter before the Cougars sealed the contest with a 12-play, 58-yard drive that ended in kneel-downs.