`Dazzling Ducks' again.

Byline: Mark Baker The Register-Guard

Rich, cool and 8-4.

Not to mock the "Dazzling Ducks" Sports Illustrated cover of Sept. 29, but if you had told the University of Oregon football team and its fans that it would lose half of its games after that historic win over Michigan on Sept. 20, they wouldn't have liked that much.

Or believed it.

Two months ago, after a 4-0 start to the season, talk was of another run at the national championship after finishing second to Miami two years ago.

However, after three humiliating Pac-10 losses, an 8-4 record and a likely spot in the Sun Bowl sounds pretty good right now.

The Oregon Ducks defeated favored Oregon State 34-20 Saturday before 58,102 fans at Autzen Stadium - the largest crowd ever to see a Civil War football game - giving the Ducks four wins in their final five games, a third-place Pac-10 finish and the renewed respect and adoration of UO fans.

And those fans like nothing more than beating the Beavers - (all right, maybe the Huskies) - no matter what the records are or what bowl game is on the line.

And the feeling is mutual.

Here, then, is a blow-by-blow look at the 107th version of the Civil War as seen through the eyes of diehard Duck and Beaver fans.

First quarter

"You're hanging in the winner's section," says Rob Fallow, 31, a Beaver fan from Portland. Oregon State fans were given about 3,200 tickets in Autzen's southwest corner, and even before kickoff, the orange-jacketed Fallow was confident the Beavers would win.

When the Ducks come out of the tunnel on the west side of the stadium wearing their lightning-yellow uniforms, Fallow's buddy, Tim Sissel, also of Portland, says of the blinding color: "I hate it. We're Beaver fans."

"It's a good color to lose in," Fallow says.

A few minutes later, the sea of orange is screaming wildly as OSU quickly takes a 7-0 lead with just three minutes and 15 seconds elapsed.

Over in the UO student section, 18-year-old Jason Tomlinson is standing in the first row, his face painted with horizontal green-and-yellow stripes.

"DUCKS ALL THE WAY!!!" he screams, the game now tied 7-7.

Up above, on the ramp leading to the north-side sky suites, UO student Andres Mazry is swinging a stuffed beaver on a rope, pounding it's body into the cement.

"It's about to die," he says.

Second quarter

With the Ducks leading 14-7 early in the quarter, a man stands in the stadium's south concourse, blood dripping from his face, Kleenex stuffed in his nose. Paramedics from the Eugene Fire Department tend to him.

"He hit him hard," a witness in a UO jacket tells a paramedic. "I mean, it was a crunch."

Meanwhile, on the playing field sprawls Oregon State kick returner Harvey Whiten, the victim of a hard hit by Oregon's Jerry Matson. He is suffering from a concussion, and the game is stopped for several minutes before Whiten is removed by stretcher.

In Section 35, a Duck fan on his way back to his seat approaches Beaver fan Dave Foster from Hillsboro and says: "You know how to keep Beavers out of your backyard? Put up a goal post."

"Go sit down," Foster says.

"You got one for me?" the UO fan asks.

"Negative," Foster says. "Go sit down."

"That guy was just disrespectful," Foster says. "We've got a player hurt."

Is there anything worse than losing to the Ducks, Dave?

"Losing to the Huskies," he says. "I'm an Oregonian."

Third quarter

A furry white Duck head is sticking out of Mike Jayne's green hat, legs and tail pushing through the back.

With the Ducks now leading 21-10, the Beavers are threatening near Oregon's goal line. "They're scarin' the hell out of me," says Jayne, 49, of his beloved Ducks.

And, no, there is nothing that would be worse than a loss to the Beavers, Jayne says. "I have a friend who's a Beaver, and for years we sat together," he says. "And we had to take losing to the Great Pumpkin - every year!," he says, referring to legendary OSU coach Dee Andros, who died in October and rarely lost to the Ducks in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Back over in the OSU section, three Oregon fans have found seats next to Fallow and Sissel. With just three minutes remaining in the quarter, the Ducks have taken a 28-13 lead and that's just fine with 27-year-old Timothy Miller of Portland.

"My mother is a Beaver, but I still love the Ducks," Miller says. "It's just one of those things."

Fourth quarter

Judy Olin of Leaburg is dancing in the aisle at the top of Section 16. She is wearing orange and black from head to toe. Now she is hugging her friend Jan Muller, who is wearing a green UO jacket.

"Yesssss ....... Beavers!!!!" screams Olin, 57. The Beavers have just scored to cut the lead to 28-20.

"It's gonna be the greatest comeback in Civil War history," Olin tells Muller.

With less than nine minutes to go in the game, OSU fan Ron Enna of Portland appears in a long walkway between the UO club seats on the stadium's south side. He is wearing a full-body fur coat with orange emblems and a bucktooth-beaver hat on his head. The coat is actually made of raccoon fur and he bought it three years ago on eBay, he says.

"I was looking for some better company," Enna says. "My son-in-law is a UO fan and he was arguing with some young OSU girls behind him. They were giving him a bad time."

A security worker tells Enna he can't stand in the walkway and he disappears.

Just then, two shirtless OSU students wearing orange pants, their entire upper bodies painted black, appear in the walkway. One of them, wearing an orange wig, raises both his hands and makes an obscene gesture to the UO crowd.

"Oh, you got some real class," a Duck fan says.

With two field goals late in the game, the Ducks have clinched the win, and OSU fans begin to file out of their section early.

An intoxicated Duck fan trips and falls trying to walk through the UO section.

"See what happens when you root for the Ducks," an exiting Beaver fan says.

As the final seconds tick away, Oregon fans swarm the field as Duck players hold their helmets high.

Is there anything better than beating the Beavers, Mark Nash?

"No," yells the 19-year-old UO student. "But the Michigan game was pretty damn good."

CAPTION(S):

The University of Oregon football team celebrates with fans at the center of the field after a 34-20 victory over Oregon State on Saturday in the 107th Civil War game. The bowl-bound Ducks finish an up-and-down regular season at 8-4.