Fans shower field with debris after Washington State loss

PULLMAN -- In the fourth quarter of the Apple Cup that wouldn't end, Washington State quarterback Jason Gesser was twisted into the ground awkwardly by Washington defensive tackle Terry Johnson and had to be helped off the field, unable to return.

Next to come crashing to earth was the third-ranked Cougars football team.

NOTE: This story has been updated since it was originally posted.

WSU turned up a 29-26 triple-overtime loser to its state rival at sold-out Martin Stadium, left crumpled in the spotlight.

"We had our chances," Cougars defensive tackle Rien Long said.

"I have the worst taste in my mouth because we didn't get the job done on the field," teammate Isaac Brown said.

Said WSU coach Mike Price, "Seemed like both teams wanted to give this game away."

A highly emotional football contest was decided on a 49-yard field goal by John Anderson and a controversial fumble call against the Cougars. The furious activity didn't stop there when the outcome was declared.

A small-scale riot broke out, threatening something worse.

As Washington fans rushed to the middle of the field to celebrate with their players, incensed WSU fans started pelting them with plastic giveaway footballs and all sorts of containers from the stands, mostly water and soft-drink bottles. But there were a a few fifths of alcohol too.

"I can't say much about that," Long said. "If it happened, it's a shock."

"I feared for my life," Washington athletic director Barbara Hedges said, according to the Associated Press.

Both sides were guilty of a classless display.

A photographer bled profusely from his cheek, cut by a flying projectile. A female WSU band member sought medical attention, hit in the shoulder. A middle-aged man caught in the midst of this out-of-control ordeal complained he was having trouble breathing, and an aid car was summoned.

UW running back Rich Alexis declared: "The fans, they're just crazy. They're upset, but they shouldn't be doing anything like that. I hope none of my teammates got hurt."

A bad situation was heightened when a handful of UW players ran to the opposing sideline and taunted the home crowd, starting with Huskies wide receiver Patrick Reddick. He made several gestures. Before long, fans on the field and in the stands were firing containers back and forth furiously.

Huskies coach Rick Neuheisel, showered with obscenities as he ran up the tunnel surrounded by state troopers, raised his hat smugly.

Johnson, the player involved in Gesser's hard but clean hit, climbed a stairway and tried to enter the stands, upset after someone was hit by a bottle, only to be wrestled away by an officer. Another trooper grabbed a WSU fan and ushered him away.

Exiting up the tunnel, UW defensive back Greg Carothers, watching for flying objects, slammed into a WSU fan, knocking him hard to the ground. The red-shirted man lay motionless on the ground, a concerned Carothers checking on him before others intervened. After a few moments, the man got up groggily, unsure what happened.

The fury came to a head when UW wide receiver Reggie Williams raced from the center of the field to the edge of the stands, shaking his No. 1 jersey in a derisive manner, further inciting an already partisan following. Bottles and other items showered the field and stands like hail.

Alexis, the last player to leave the field, was called every obscene name imaginable as he slowly entered the tunnel and a venomous gauntlet.

His simple response, "Got you again."

Oh, yes, a football game was played, often clumsily, sometimes artfully. A lot was at stake.

WSU (9-2, 6-1) had its national championship ambitions dashed and its Rose Bowl pursuits put in serious jeopardy.

Also, the Cougars might have lost their leader for the next game, the season-ender Dec. 7 at UCLA -- where a win sends WSU to the Rose Bowl, a loss to the Holiday Bowl.

Gesser went down with 9:44 left to play. Replays showed his right leg twisted in a manner that made viewers cringe. His injury was ruled a high ankle sprain, this coming after sideline observers first feared he had broken something. He watched the rest of the way, with two ice bags fastened to his leg from the knee down, occasionally using crutches.

The senior quarterback from Honolulu broke the tibia bone in the same leg two years earlier against Oregon, forcing him to miss his final two games that season, including the Apple Cup. He had X-rays shortly after the game and was ruled out indefinitely.

"If I could have played, you would have seen me out there," Gesser said. "You know that. Everybody in this room knows that. I couldn't play. The doctor wouldn't let me play. I wanted to be in there."

Said WSU trainer Bill Drake, "We will have a better idea of his recovery time by next weekend."

Gesser left the game with his team ahead 17-10, having completed 14 of 24 passes for 226 yards and a touchdown.

The Cougars could have survived without him. The Huskies did everything it could to give the game to them, starting with Derek McLaughlin dropping a punt snap near his goal line and then trying to kick the ball off the ground.

An illegal kick was ruled, putting WSU first-and-goal on the Huskies 1, looking for a game-clinching touchdown. Never happened.

A Cougars lineman jumped offside, putting the ball back on the 6. A John Tipping run netted a yard and sack of back-up quarterback Matt Kegel lost two yards, forcing the Cougars to settle for a 22-yard field goal by Drew Dunning with 4:41 left.

The Huskies roared back in the closing moments with Cody Pickett hitting Paul Arnold on a 7-yard TD and Anderson connecting on a tying 27-yard field goal with 15 seconds left.

The game then became a field-goal kicking contest, with Anderson and Dunning matching kicks through two overtimes.

In the third extra session, Anderson hit his fourth consecutive three-pointer, this after missing his first three in regulation and a fourth that was wiped out by penalty.

In response, Kegel threw an incomplete pass, then had his second one batted up in the air by the UW's Kai Ellis, who jumped on it on the wet turf.

After a huddle of officials, the game was ruled over, setting off an energized UW celebration and leading to the angry outburst.

The Cougars were certain the play should have been called an incomplete pass.

They had disagreed with this particular crew before.

It might be the last time.

"They're never going to officiate another game I'm coaching," Price muttered before walking off into the night.

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