OSU controls clock and Broncos.

Byline: Bob Rodman The Register-Guard

CORVALLIS - Oregon State played keep away for the final 7 1/2 minutes of Saturday's struggle at a sold-out Reser Stadium, missing the end zone but not a beat as the Beavers secured a 26-24 college football win over Boise State.

"We wanted to score on that last drive," said a grinning OSU coach Mike Riley after the win that extended the Beavers' nonconference victory streak at Reser to 17 games. "We also wanted to not give the ball up.

"We didn't get the score, but we did get the clock."

They also shredded Boise State's defense for a season-high 562 yards of total offense. Oregon State quarterback Derek Anderson threw for a career-high 408 yards and a touchdown. James Newson capped the Beavers' offensive show with nine receptions for 208 yards, also a career high.

"We made plays," said Steven Jackson, the OSU tailback who shoved aside a "mild knee strain" from last week and rushed for 122 yards and a touchdown. It was the 14th time in his 27 career games that he has run for 100 or more yards.

Ten days from an appendectomy, Oregon State place-kicker Kirk Yliniemi kicked four field goals, including a career-long 51-yarder. His one miss ended his career record for consecutive field goals at 20.

He shed no tears.

"I'll start another streak, but this was a great win for us," Yliniemi said.

The Beavers (3-1), tangling with one of those nemesis Western Athletic Conference outfits, put an end to Boise State's 13-game victory streak - the second-longest among NCAA Division I-A programs when the day began.

They prevented the Broncos (2-1) from escaping their winless run against Pac-10 Conference teams, a stretch now eight games long.

The Oregon State defense held the nation's No. 2 rusher, Boise's David Mikell, to 45 yards, 122 fewer than his average. And they held a team that had been averaging 43 points and 507 yards to just 24 points and 381 yards.

"Oregon State has one of the best defenses around. They don't let anything by them," said Dan Hawkins, the Boise State coach who last season beat Fresno State by 46 points, the same Fresno State that dropped the Beavers 16-14 earlier this season.

"What a fight it was with Boise," said Richard Seigler, the middle linebacker who led OSU with eight tackles, three tackles for loss and a quarterback sack. "We felt our defense could dominate them."

But the requirement this day for the Beavers to survive the Broncos, who lost for the first time since the second game of the 2002 season, was offense - including a couple of save-the-bacon throws from Anderson.

Clinging to a two-point lead, attempting to withstand Boise quarterback Ryan Dinwiddie's fancy passing and doing their best to overcome another slew of penalties (a season-high 14 that cost 144 yards), the Beavers made the most of their time in the final 10 minutes of the game.

Boise State's 17-point second quarter - fueled by Dinwiddie's 67-yard scoring pass to T.J. Acree and Tim Gilligan's 62-yard punt return - blew away OSU's 10-0 first-quarter lead.

Trailing 17-16 at halftime, Yliniemi kicked a 37-yard field goal midway through the third quarter to give OSU a 19-17 edge.

Fifteen seconds into the fourth quarter, after Anderson and Newson used a 48-yard pass play to put the ball at the Boise 11, Jackson jammed his way the final 11 yards for the score and lifted the Beavers to a 26-17 advantage.

Dinwiddie answered, passing for 79 yards to set up Mikell's 3-yard touchdown run to yank the Broncos to within two points at 26-24.

Oregon State yielded after four plays on its next possession, and Boise State took what would be its last shot, a run that reached the OSU 17-yard line before the drive - fueled by pass interference and holding penalties on the Beavers - stalled. Tyler Jones' 35-yard field-goal attempt with 7:32 left sailed wide right.

Now, it was Oregon State's game to win, if ...

"We're not a perfect team, but we needed to make some plays at the end if we were going to win," Riley said.

They did, dodging a holding penalty and a personal foul, and converting a third-and-19 situation when Anderson hooked up with slotback Kenny Farley for a 25-yard reception that moved the ball from the OSU 11 to its 37.

A couple of minutes later, Anderson found tight end Tim Euhus for a 27-yard reception that dropped OSU at the Boise 41.

Amid that 7 1/2 -minute, 17-play stretch, the Beavers successfully turned four third-down plays into first downs, and Anderson crunched his way for 2 yards - despite seemingly losing the ball en route - on a fourth down at the Boise 20 to secure the final first down of the game with less than 30 seconds to play.

"That play to Farley," smiled Anderson, who was 19-of-37 and did not throw an interception after being picked off seven times in the last two games, "that was the biggest catch of the game. We wanted to score on that drive, but we also wanted to kill that clock.

"I think we did a pretty good job of killing the clock."

And Boise State's coveted win streak.

CAPTION(S):

James Newson had a career-high 208 receiving yards Saturday. John Gress / The Associated Press Derek Anderson exceeded his career best by throwing for 408 yards against Boise State in a 26-24 victory.