Saturday, November 27, 1999
Arizona State earns
trip to HawaiiA victory over Arizona today gave
Associated Press
the Sun Devils a Dec. 25 date against
Wake Forest in the Jeep Aloha BowlTEMPE, Ariz. -- Ryan Kealy threw two touchdown passes before leaving with an injury and backup John Leonard connected with Richard Williams on a 45-yard TD as Arizona State clinched a bowl berth by beating Arizona, 42-27, today.
The Sun Devils (6-5, 5-3 Pac-10) secured the fifth conference's fifth postseason berth and will play Wake Forest in the Aloha Bowl on Christmas Day.
Arizona State went ahead 35-20 with 12:28 left in the game when Leonard threw a desperation pass to the goal line and Williams outjumped Arizona's Kelvin Hunter for the ball.
Earlier, Delvon Flowers ran for TDs of 4 and 38 yards, and Kealy threw a 51-yard bomb to Williams and a 28-yard score to Todd Heap.
J.R. Redmond scored for Arizona State on a 10-yard run with 1:33 remaining.
Keith Smith hit Dennis Northcutt with an 80-yard bomb and scored on a 12-yard run, Trung Canidate had an 80-yard scoring run and Northcutt returned a punt 81 yards for the Wildcats (6-6, 3-5).
Canidate had 158 yards rushing in his 10th consecutive 100-yard game.
He finished with 1,602 yards this season and 3,824 in his career -- good enough to pass Gaston Greene of UCLA for fifth in Pac-10 career rushing.
But it was not enough for the Sun Devils, who snapped a two-game losing streak in the series and beat Arizona for only the fifth time in the last 18 games.
The Wildcats' kicking game hurt them again.
Sean Keel, a freshman who missed a 42-yard field goal at the end of the first half, banged the ball off the left upright after Northcutt's punt return cut Arizona's deficit to 28-20 with 1:37 left in the third quarter.
After Williams' second scoring catch, Smith and Canidate made big plays to move the ball to the 12-yard line, where Smith scored untouched on a draw, pulling Arizona within 35-27 with 8:23 left to play.
But after one possession by each team, Arizona State drove 49 yards for the insurance score by Redmond.
Redmond had 112 yards on 23 carries, and Flowers had 103 on 15.
Flowers' first score with 2:41 left in the first half tied the game at 14.
It also interrupted a string of big-play scores that began with Williams' TD on a wide receiver screen 3:46 into the game
Canidate tied it with 5:08 remaining in the first quarter when he broke through on an off-tackle play and outran everyone to the end zone.
It was the second-longest run of his career.
