Beavers Bounce Cougs From Bowl Contention

It was probably not the Senior Night that Alex Brink had envisioned. The redshirt senior Wazzu quarterback who has been setting records all year, playing in his last home football game, again shot up the school's record lists – only these were the wrong lists. Brink tossed a school-record-tying six interceptions in the Cougars' ugly 52-17 loss to Oregon State at Martin Stadium in Pullman. The loss drops WSU to 4-7 overall and 2-6 in the Pac-10 and knocks them out of bowl game contention for the year.

The game began, ominously, in a rainstorm and, sure enough, it was the Beavers who got off to the quick start in the familiar weather conditions. Wazzu won the game's opening coin toss and elected to defer to the second half, intending to quickly test Beaver second-string quarterback Lyle Moevao, who was making only his second career start and first road start. But the Beavers opened the game with a 12-play march down the field with Moevao going 3-4 and capping it off with a QB sneak for the first touchdown of the game.

From there, it just got worse for the Cougars as a fake punt attempt went awry in their first possession, then running back Chris Ivory was stripped of the ball in the Cougars' second possession and Brink threw his first interception of the game in their third possession. The Beavers were up 21-0 in the first quarter before senior kicker Romeen Abdollmohammadi was able to get Wazzu on the board with a 40-yard field goal – his eighth consecutive made field goal.

But that would be as close as they could get to the Beavers in front of a sparse crowd decimated by students' Thanksgiving break. Brink would toss five more interceptions in the game before he was finally pulled by head coach Bill Doba in the fourth quarter. But by that time, Brink had already tied the school record for interceptions in a game [shared by Jerry Henderson in 1967, Chuck Peck in 1974 and Paul Mencke in 1997]. The six picks also gives him 18 for the year – fifth-place on the school's all-time Top 10 list and five behind Ty Paine. His career 46 interceptions trail the overall career leader, also Paine, by eight.

The Cougars finish their 2007 season next week in the Apple Cup at Husky Stadium in Seattle at 4 p.m. on Saturday, November 24.

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