SAN FRANCISCO – BYU fell to Washington 31-16 in the Fight Hunger Bowl at AT&T Park on Friday night.
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Washington (9-4, 5-4 Pac-12) scored touchdowns on three of its four trips inside the red zone as BYU (8-5) scored one touchdown and three field goals on its three blue zone trips that contributed to the final margin. The Cougars scored all 16 of their points in the second quarter.
Taysom Hilll finished the game throwing for 293 yards and rushing for 133 yards. Cody Hoffman had 12 catches for 167 yards for his 18th 100-yard receiving game in his career to break the record held by Austin Collie. He also broke the BYU record for career all-purpose yards, ending his career with 5,015 and passing Curtis Brown.
Washington got inside the BYU 20-yard line on two of its first three drives of the game, but the Cougar defense held the Huskies to just one touchdown on their opening possession.
After a muffed punt gave Washington the ball on the BYU 22-yard line, the Huskies converted a fourth down and faced another fourth down from the 3-yard line. Kyle Van Noy broke through the line and tackled the Huskies’ running back for a nine-yard loss to hold the score at 7-0.
BYU responded by driving the ball 88 yards to tie the game at 7-7 on a one-yard run by Hill. The Cougars grabbed the momentum on a fake punt by Daniel Sorensen, and Hill completed his next four passes to move the offense down the field.
Washington returned the following kickoff back for a touchdown to take back the lead at 14-7. Two field goals by Justin Sorensen brought the score within one at 14-13. Sorensen’s first field goal was from 45 yards, which is a season long.
A long kickoff return by the Huskies set up Washington’s second rushing touchdown of the game to take a 21-13 lead with just over two and a half minutes left in the first half.
Justin Sorensen nailed his third field goal of the game as time expired in the first half to close the gap at 21-16 going into the locker room. On the drive, Hill found Hoffman three times for 41 yards to move the ball into field goal range.
Washington scored first in the second half after taking the opening drive of the half 62 yards for the score and a 28-16 lead.
An interception by Robertson Daniel deep in the Huskies’ territory set BYU up with great field position, but the Cougars were unable to turn the turnover into points as BYU went into the fourth quarter with the ball and trailing 28-16.
Craig Bills led the way on defense with nine tackles, and Van Noy had seven tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss.