PHOENIX -- A frantic end to the first half of the 27th Annual Motel 6 Cactus Bowl set the tone for a dramatic second half that saw six scoring changes with the Arizona State Sun Devil football team coming out on the wrong end of the final change, falling 43-42 to West Virginia in the final bowl game of the 2015 season.
In front of a largely partisan crowd of 39,321, numerous Sun Devil bowl and school records were set as the two teams combined for 85 points, 1,196 total yards of offense and 17 scoring plays in a game that had the smallest margin of victory of any bowl game played this year.
Trailing 42-36 late in the game, the Mountaineers (8-5, 4-5 Big 12) converted a third-and-22 from the ASU 39-yard line in a 24-yard Wendell Smallwood rush with about three minutes remaining and scored two plays later on a 15-yard Davis Sills touchdown reception with 2:19 remaining to take a 43-42 lead that it would not relinquish.
Mike Bercovici threw for 418 yards and four touchdowns in his final game for the Sun Devils (6-7, 4-5 Pac-12) on 29-of-52 passing with no picks, matching Andrew Walter’s 2004 school record total of 30 touchdown passes on the season.
Devin Lucien finished the game with 144 yards on nine catches with a touchdown, bringing his final three-game total to 534 yards on 26 catches and five touchdowns. Tim White added two touchdown receptions and finished with 289 all-purpose yards as he added 177 yards on kick returns and 33 on punt returns, breaking ASU’s long-standing bowl record for all-purpose yards previously held by Wilford White (247 in the 1951 Salad Bowl).
WVU’s Skyler Howard picked finished with five touchdowns and 532 passing yards on 28-of-51 passing with two interceptions and Shelton Gibson had 143 receiving yards on four catches with a touchdown. ASU did, however, hold the potent Smallwood to just 72 yards on 13 carries.
The Sun Devils took a 42-36 lead with 4:56 remaining in the game as Bercovici found Gary Chambers for a 58-yard catch-and-run – the longest reception of Chambers’ career – for his fourth passing score of the day and the fifth lead change of the second half.
West Virginia went 75 yards in 2:37 on the following drive though for the decisive score and Bercovici’s fourth-and-10 attempt to Kody Kohl sailed high on the following drive to end ASU’s chances.
The Devils trailed 36-32 entering the fourth quarter but scored early in the frame on a Zane Gonzalez 48-yard field goal. It was his fourth field goal of the game, setting an ASU bowl record in the process. Gonzalez finished the night with 16 points, breaking Luis Zendejas’ ASU career record for points scored (380) as he finished his junior year with 396 points to his credit.
Gonzalez also finished the season with 26 field goals, moving ahead of himself for second in ASU history in single-season field goals.
The two squads combined for 28 third-quarter points with both notching two passing touchdowns apiece, exchanging touchdowns on the opening drives of the half. The teams followed that with three-and-outs on their ensuing drives before getting their legs under them to exchange another pair of touchdowns midway through the frame.
The Sun Devil offense struggled to get anything going early, finishing with just 42 yards on 15 plays and a single first down in the first quarter compared to 236 yards and nine first downs by the Mountaineer offense.
The ASU defense did hold firm when it had to though, holding WVU to just three field goals in the red zone in the opening frame on Mountaineers’ three trips to the red zone.
The Devils took advantage of a Salamo Fiso interception in West Virginia territory on the Mountaineer’s third drive of the game and cashed in four plays later on a Gonzalez 37-yard field goal to make it a 6-3 ball game with 5:06 remaining in the first quarter before Josh Lambert added his third field goal of the quarter on WVU’s following drive to give the Mountaineers a 9-3 advantage after one quarter.
ASU would shake off the cobwebs in the second quarter, however, and took its first lead of the game with 9:59 remaining in the half as Bercovici found Devin Lucien for a 19-yard touchdown and a 10-9 Sun Devil advantage.
The teams would then exchange two quick possessions before WVU answered as Howard connected with Skyler Gibson for a 59-yard touchdown pass and a 16-10 lead.
The Devils drove the ball to the West Virginia 1-yard line on the following drive but couldn’t punch the ball in and were forced to settle for a 19-yard Gonzalez field goal to bring ASU back within a field goal.
That would set up a furious final minute of action that culminated in a Daikiel Shorts touchdown reception with 28 seconds remaining in the half. Josh Lambert’s extra point was blocked by Ismael Murphy-Richardson, however, and White returned the ball for the first blocked extra-point conversion in program history to keep ASU within 22-15.
Lambert’s attempt to squib the ensuing kickoff landed right in the hands of D.J. Calhoun on the ASU 49-yard line with 27 seconds left and the Devils quickly drove 34 yards on the next four plays to get within 22-18 at the halftime break on a Zane Gonzalez field goal.
The Sun Devil open the 2016 season at home against Northern Arizona on Sept. 3 in Tempe, Ariz., at Sun Devil Stadium. Spring Practice will be scheduled to begin at some point in March.