FIESTA BOWL

No. 4 Ducks take off from start

— Oregon’s De’Anthony Thomas raced 94 yards for a touchdown on the opening kickoff.

The fourth-ranked Ducks barely looked back after that.

Triggered by Thomas’ attention-grabbing return, Oregon raced past No. 5 Kansas State 35-17 Thursday night at the Fiesta Bowl in what may have been Coach Chip Kelly’s final game with the Ducks.

“Our focus was on this game tonight,” Kelly said. “If for some reason someone wanted to talk to me, it’s because of those players over there. We have an unbelievable team, an unbelievable program, and any success is because of those guys.”

Teams that had national title aspirations end on the same day, Oregon and Kansas State ended up in the desert for a marquee matchup billed as a battle of styles: the fastflying Ducks vs. the execution-is-everything Wildcats.

With Kelly reportedly talking to several NFL teams, Oregon (12-1) was too much for Kansas State and its Heisman Trophy finalist, Collin Klein. The Ducks tried to turn the game into a track meet, and it worked from the start.

Thomas followed his kickoff return with a 23-yard touchdown catch, finishing with 195 total yards.

Kenjon Barner ran for 143 yards on 31 carries and scored on a 24-yard touchdown pass from Marcus Mariota in the second quarter. Mariota later scored on a 2-yard run in the third quarter, capped by an obscure one-point safety that went in the Ducks’ favor.

Even Oregon’s defense got into the act, intercepting Klein twice and holding him to 30 yards on 13 carries.

“We got beat by a better team tonight, combined by the fact that we let down from time to time,” Kansas State Coach Bill Snyder said

After Thomas raced past Oregon’s bench for a touchdown on the opening kickoff, the Ducks, as they are apt to do, went for a two-point conversion and converted on a trick play to go up 8-0 in the game’s first 12 seconds.

Thomas hurt the Wildcats (11-2) again late in the first quarter, breaking a couple of tackles and dragging three defenders into the end zone for a catch-and-run touchdown that put the Ducks up 15-0.

And they kept flying.

Oregon followed a missed 40-yard field goal by Kansas State’s Anthony Cantele by moving 77 yards in 46 seconds, and the Ducks went up 22-10 at halftime after Mariota hit Barner on 24-yard touchdown pass.

Alejandro Maldonado made a 33-yard field goal on Oregon’s opening drive of the third quarter and Mariota capped a long drive with an easy 2-yard touchdown run to the left. Kansas State’s Javonta Boyd blocked the extra-point attempt, but even that went wrong for the Wildcats: Chris Harper was tackled in the end zone for a the one-point safety that put Oregon up 32-10.

Kansas State needed a little time to get its wheels spinning on offense, laboring early before Klein scored on a 6-yard run early in the second quarter.

Klein kept the Wildcats moving in the quarter, though not toward touchdowns: Cantele kicked a 25-yard field goal and missed from 40 after a false-start penalty.

Klein hit John Hubert on a 10-yard touchdown pass early in the fourth quarter, but all that did was cut Oregon’s lead to 32-17.

He threw for 151 yards on 17-of-32 passing.

“They did a great job of flying to the football,” Klein said.

Sports, Pages 21 on 01/04/2013

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