No. 4 Oregon Defeats No. 5 Kansas State 35-17 in Fiesta Bowl

Marcus Mariota threw two touchdown passes and ran for a third as the University of Oregon beat Kansas State University 35-17 in college football’s Fiesta Bowl.

De’Anthony Thomas returned the opening kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown and caught Mariota’s 23-yard pass for another score to give fourth-ranked Oregon a 15-0 first-quarter lead last night at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

Collin Klein ran six yards for a touchdown for the fifth- ranked Wildcats and Anthony Cantele added a 25-yard field goal before Mariota threw a second touchdown pass to Kenjon Barner to make it 22-10 to the Ducks at halftime.

Oregon (12-1, 8-1 Pac-12) shut out Kansas State (11-2, 8-1 Big 12) in the third quarter, scoring on Alejandro Maldonado’s 33-yard field goal and Mariota’s 2-yard touchdown run.

Kansas State quarterback Klein threw his only touchdown pass to John Hubert at the start of the fourth quarter to make it 32-17 before Oregon’s Maldonado completed the scoring with a 24-yard field goal.

Mariota completed 12 of 24 pass attempts for 166 yards, while Klein succeeded on 17 of 32 tries for 151 yards and two interceptions.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nancy Kercheval in Washington at nkercheval@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net