Oregon State holds off Colorado for 36-31 win

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) Terron Ward ran for 102 yards and two touchdowns, including a 10-yard score with 5:09 remaining, and Oregon State's defense turned away Colorado's last-gasp drive as the Beavers hung on to beat the Buffaloes 36-31 on Saturday.

Sean Mannion, bouncing back from a rough outing in last week's loss at Southern Cal, completed 27 of 37 for 278 yards and his lone touchdown pass came in the fourth quarter to help Oregon State (4-1, 1-1 Pac-12) fend off Colorado (2-4, 0-3).

Sefo Liufau completed 32 of 49 for 308 yards and two touchdowns, both to Tyler McCulloch. But with Colorado facing a fourth down at the Oregon State 40 in the last couple of minutes, Liufau, with two Oregon State defenders in his face, threw incomplete. The Beavers took over and Mannion took a knee three times to run out the final moments.

Defensive lineman Timothy Coleman broke through to sack Mannion for a 9-yard loss to the Colorado 29-yard line and the Buffaloes' defense forced two more incompletions before Trevor Romaine came on to kick his third field goal, a 47-yarder that put the Beavers back in front 23-21 with 6:47 remaining in the third quarter.

Oregon State extended the lead with a drive kept alive by a pass interference penalty on Colorado's Ken Crawley that negated his interception of a Mannion pass and gave the Beavers a first down at the 34-yard line. Three runs advanced the ball to the 24, where Mannion lofted a scoring pass to Caleb Smith. Smith out-jumped two Buffaloes defenders to make the catch before tumbling into the end zone.

Colorado cut the deficit to 30-24 on Will Oliver's 44-yard field goal with 10:52 left to play but Mannion responded by leading another scoring drive that Ward finished off with his second scoring run.

The Buffaloes weren't through, though. They pulled within five with three minutes left on Liufau's 17-yard scoring pass to McCulloch.

Down 14-0 early, Colorado fought back to take a 21-20 halftime lead when Tony Jones bulled his way into the end zone from a yard out with 43 seconds left in the second quarter.

Liufau, whose interception midway through the first quarter led to a Beavers' touchdown, got the Buffaloes back into the game with a 31-yard scoring pass to McCulloch. The lanky wide receiver shook off a tackle by safety Justin Strong at the 20 and bolted untouched down the left sideline for the score pulling the Buffaloes to 14-7.

Michael Adkins II added a 12-yard scoring run for Colorado around a pair of field goals by Romaine.

The Beavers got a pair of 4-yard touchdown runs to go up early, the first by Ward. The other, by Storm Woods, came on the heels of linebacker D.J. Alexander's interception of Liufau and 25-yard return to Colorado's 8.