No. 10 Washington beats No. 17 Utah 10-3 for title

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Byron Murphy returned a deflected interception 66 yards for the game’s only touchdown to lead No. 10 Washington to a 10-3 victory over No. 17 Utah in an offensively challenged Pac12 championship game Friday night.

In a matchup of the two stingiest defenses in the conference, neither offense could get much of anything going at all. So it was only fitting that a dropped pass by Utah (9-4, No. 17 CFP) led to an interception for Washington (10-3, No. 11 CFP) and the only touchdown.

Both teams had been held to just one field goal when the Huskies broke through late in the third quarter.

Jason Shelley’s pass hit Siaosi Mariner in the hands inside the Washington 35. But Mariner couldn’t hold onto the pass and it ricocheted off his leg and into the hands of Murphy, who raced 66 yards for the score that made it 10-3.

Jordan Miller intercepted another pass from Shelley on the following drive and Murphy got his second interception of the game the next time Utah had the ball. The Huskies sealed the victory with a fourth-down stop in the final minute to earn a trip to the Rose Bowl.

The Huskies had four drives of at least 10 plays but got only one field goal out of those. They were stopped on a fourth-and-6 from the Utah 23 on the opening drive, threw an interception in Utah territory on the third drive and had a field goal blocked in the fourth quarter.

The one score came on Peyton Henry’s 29-yard field goal late in the first half. That was enough to give Washington a 3-0 lead at the break but the Utes tied it with a score on the opening possession of the third quarter when Matt Gay’s 53-yard field goal just cleared the cross bar.

NORTHERN ILLINOIS 30, BUFFALO 29

DETROIT — Marcus Childers threw a touchdown pass — his fourth of the game — to D.J. Brown with 1:09 to go and Northern Illinois rallied from a 20-point, second-half deficit to take a 3029 victory over Buffalo in the Mid-American Conference championship game on Friday night.

The 35-yard TD pass came on the eighth play of a 70-yard drive that took a little more than two minutes following a punt forced by Sutton Smith’s sack of Bulls quarterback Tyree Jackson.

NIU’s 2-point conversion failed and the Bulls (10-3) reached the Huskies’ 41-yard line before an incomplete pass on fourth down with 21 seconds left ended Buffalo’s hopes.

The Huskies’ touchdown completed a comeback from a 29-10 deficit in the third quarter. Childers threw a 28-yard score to Brown near the end of the third quarter and a 32-yarder to Spencer Tears with under 13 minutes left in the fourth. Childers also had a 13-yard TD pass to Tears in the first half. Childers completed 21 of 33 passes for 300 yards with an interception and led the team with 58 yards rushing.