Arizona nips Arizona State 20-17 on final play

TEMPE — Arizona hung onto the Territorial Cup after Arizona State’s Kyle Williams dropped a punt.

Less than a minute after catching the tying TD pass, Williams muffed a punt deep in his own territory, and the Wildcats recovered. Four plays later, Alex Zendejas kicked a 32-yard field goal as time expired to give the Wildcats an emotional 20-17 victory over the Sun Devils on Saturday.

Arizona rebounded one week after a heartbreaking 44-41 double-overtime loss to No. 11 Oregon. In that game, the Ducks tied it on a TD pass with 6 seconds to play, and they went on to end Arizona’s hopes for its first Rose Bowl berth in 32 years as a Pac-10 member.

“I don’t know how much more I can take,” said Arizona coach Mike Stoops, who improved to 3-3 against the Wildcats’ most bitter rival. “That game hurt us a lot last week, and it hurt us in a lot of different ways. Our kids were resilient enough.”

Zendejas’ uncle, Max, is the leading scorer in Arizona history, and he beat ASU with late field goals in 1983 and 1985, both in Tempe.

“I’ve heard that plenty of times,” said Alex Zendejas, a Glendale product. “I got one more to catch up to him.”

Keola Antolin scored on a 67-yard run and Orlando Vargas blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown for the Wildcats, who have beaten the Sun Devils in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 1997-98. Arizona leads the all-time series 46-36-1.

With rain falling at game’s end, a skirmish broke out between Arizona State (4-8, 2-7 Pac-10) and Arizona (7-4, 5-3) at midfield, but order was quickly restored.

“It’s just an emotional game,” ASU linebacker Travis Goethel said. “No one wants to lose it, so emotions are still flying high.”

Until his blunder, Williams looked as if he was going to be a hero, with nine catches for a career-high 130 yards and two touchdowns.

With ASU down 14-0 in the third quarter, Williams returned a punt 53 yards set up ASU’s first score, a 26-yard field goal by Thomas Weber.

Then Williams caught a sideline pass from Danny Sullivan and sprinted 44 yards for a score that sliced ASU’s deficit to 14-10 with 11:54 to play.

After Zendejas kicked a 30-yard field goal, Williams made a diving catch on a 14-yard pass from Sullivan in the back of the end zone to tie it at 17-17 with 2:02 to go. It came on fourth down, with Sullivan scrambling out of the pocket and throwing a strike.

Then came disaster for ASU.

Williams muffed a punt, and Arizona’s Mike Turner recovered at ASU’s 22-yard line.

“I think (Williams) was just trying to be aggressive, trying to make a play,” ASU coach Dennis Erickson said. “A hero part of the time, and then make a play like that. If it wasn’t for Kyle, I don’t know if we’d even be in the game.”

Four plays later, Zendejas trotted on and nailed the game-winner straight down the middle as red-clad Arizona fans erupted.

“I was anxious,” Zendejas said. “I was really excited to go out there and have the chance to put my team on top.”

The annual duel in the desert drew a disappointing crowd — announced at 55,989 in 71,706-seat Sun Devil Stadium — on a 70-degree afternoon.

They saw another crusher for the Sun Devils, who also lost to Georgia and California on last-gasp field goals this season.

“It’s basically a season where nothing went our way,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan was benched after starting most of the season. But Erickson called on him to bail out struggling starter Samson Szakacsy in the first half. Sullivan threw for 168 yards and two scores in his final college game.

Dimitri Nance ran for 115 yards for the Sun Devils, who lost their last six games, matching the school record for consecutive losses in a single season.

The Wildcats struck first. Antolin took a handoff, broke through the line and outraced the secondary for a 67-yard score that put Arizona up 7-0 late in the first quarter. It was Arizona’s longest scoring run of the season.

The Wildcats made it 14-0 late in the first half when Vargas blew through the line and blocked a punt by Trevor Hankins, scooped it up and ran it back 23 yards for a touchdown.