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Odunze Wins a Trip Home with a Victory at Oregon State

The Las Vegas native and his teammates earned a Pac-12 championship-game berth.
Dan Raley|
Odunze Wins a Trip Home with a Victory at Oregon State
Odunze Wins a Trip Home with a Victory at Oregon State

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Washington Huskies

CORVALLIS, Oregon — A little rain wasn't going to bother Rome Odunze. After wading through multiple inches of the wet stuff on Saturday night at Oregon State, he now gets to play indoors in his hometown.

The Huskies' 22-20 victory clinched a Pac-12 championship game berth for Odunze and his teammates on Dec. 1 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

"It means everything to me," Odunze said. "I'm going back to my hometown, Las Vegas, Nevada. Allegiant Stadium. I've never stepped in the stadium because I knew this was going to be an opportunity for us. It'll be the first time I get to go to that stadium, for the Pac-12 championship, and I'm excited."

However, to earn a ticket home, Odunze and the No. 5 Huskies (11-0 overall, 8-0 Pac-12) had to navigate some really adverse conditions against the 10th-ranked team in the country at Reser Stadium.

It was not easy, by any means. Especially the pass-catching part.

Odunze and Giles Jackson were the only UW wide receivers who could come up with a reception in the downpour.

Ja'Lynn Polk had no catches among 6 targets, with the ball repeatedly caroming off his hands. Jalen McMillan had 2 throws hit his fingers and drop to the ground. Germie Bernard had a pass thrown his way and couldn't bring it in either.

Leave to Odunze to show once more why he's one of the nation's best at what he does by leading the Huskies in receptions with 7 for 106 yards and 2 scores on 11 targets that came his way. Jackson had the only other wideout catch, a 10-yarder in the second quarter on the only ball thrown to him.

"It being a rainy day, a couple passes hit the turf and that's not usual for us," Odunze said.

Odunze opened the scoring for everyone when he got a step on Oregon State cornerback Jaden Robinson and pulled in a 12-yard touchdown pass from Michael Penix Jr. to put his team up 7-0. The game was barely five minutes old. 

In the second quarter, Odunze took off for the end zone and left Beavers nickelback Ryan Cooper Jr. in a seated position as he stood there wide open and caught a 32-yard Penix pass, giving the Huskies a 22-10 lead.

Coach Kalen DeBoer, Odunze and others noted in the postgame exchange how satisfying it was to wrap up a title-game spot even though the UW still has to play Washington State in the Apple Cup first.

"We have a game next week we need to focus on, but knowing we're going to be in the championship game is exciting," Odunze said. "We definitely still have to focus on next week."

For the Husky receiver, as his rain-game performance showed, focus is not a problem for him.

 

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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