Washington State Cougars at Oregon State Beavers

Hankerson's 4th quarter TD gives Oregon State a 10-7 win over Washington State

Because the teams play twice this season, Saturday's meeting was considered a non-conference game. The Cougars and the Beavers play again in Pullman on Nov. 29, for the final game of the season, which will determine this year's winner of the two-team Pac-12.

Washington State led 7-3 in the fourth quarter when Hankerson ran for a 1-yard touchdown for the Beavers (2-7) with 9:52 left.

Jack Stevens' 32-yard field goal attempt for the Cougars (4-5) with 1:05 left went wide right.

“We were hungry for it man,” Hankerson said. “”Everybody in the locker room was hungry. We extremely wanted to win."

Caleb Ojeda kicked a 35-yard field for Oregon State with 2:52 left in the opening half. The Cougars answered with a seven-play, 75-yard drive that ended with Kirby Vorhees' 3-yard touchdown run.

“It was a basic chip-shot field goal. We missed it. A lot of things went wrong today, proud of our defense, how they played, they just kept responding, but we can’t score seven points and expect to win a game,” Washington State coach Jimmy Rogers said.

The Beavers had just 185 yards in total offense in the victory but the defense held the Cougars scoreless in the second half. Oregon State intercepted Cougars quarterback Zevi Eckhaus twice and sacked him six times.

Conference realignment collapsed the Pac-12 in the summer of 2023, with Oregon State and Washington State left as the lone two remaining teams. Last year they had an agreement to play Mountain West opponents, but this season both acted essentially as independents.

Next season Oregon State and Washington State are reviving a new Pac-12. They've added Texas State, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Utah State and Gonzaga as a non-football member.

The Beavers and the Cougars were on different trajectories this season. Washington State, under first-year coach Rogers, needs two more wins in the final three games to be bowl eligible.

The Beavers fired coach Trent Bray after an 0-7 start and promoted Robb Akey in the interim. They sat quarterback Maalik Murphy in favor of sophomore Gabbari Johnson. After making the changes, the Beavers defeated visiting Lafayette on Oct. 18.

Johnson left Saturday's game in the third quarter and was treated in the medical tent before heading to the locker room with what appeared to be a foot or lower leg injury. Murphy took over at QB for the Beavers.

“To see our guys smiling the way that they are right now was really, really cool. And to see them overcome adversity and fight themselves through it, find a way to finish, they took some steps forward and that was really, really cool,” Akey said.

Up Next Washington State has a bye next weekend before hosting Louisiana Tech on Nov. 15.

Oregon State hosts Sam Houston next weekend.