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Portland State QB gets revenge on rival in stunning upset of Wazzu
A 31-point underdog? A quarterback who had never before thrown a pass in an NCAA game? A driving rainstorm?
None of that mattered Saturday for Portland State, which earned its first win in 15 tries against a Pac-12 opponent by stunning four-and-a-half-touchdown favorite Washington State, 24-17, in a driving rainstorm in Pullman.
According to ESPN, the Vikings entered the game with a 2.4 percent chance of victory, making the upset the third-most unlikely in the past 10 seasons.
It was a particularly special win for Portland State quarterback Alex Kuresa, who was making his first start at the NCAA level after transferring from Snow Junior College in Utah -- and was doing so against high school rival Luke Falk, the starting QB for Washington State.
The last time the two played, according to the Seattle Times, Falk’s Logan (Utah) team beat Kuresa’s Mountain Crest (Utah) squad 35-34 in 2010. This time, it was Kuresa who came out on top, and on a slightly bigger stage.
Kuresa was 7 for 12 passing for 61 yards but led all players with 92 rushing yards. Afterward, Kuresa was seen running into the stands to celebrate the victory with his wife:
Portland State QB Alex Kuresa (@Its_Rufio7) runs into stands to hug his wife: #PRSTvsWSU #RollViks pic.twitter.com/WpTkCNz7VZ
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) September 5, 2015
So extremely proud of my husband and the rest of the Viks today. What a game! #portlandstate #QBwifey pic.twitter.com/EBT8xj72hM
— Madison Roe Kuresa (@m_roe12) September 5, 2015
Kuresa had one of the most prolific careers in Utah prep history; as a four-year starter at Mountain Crest, he went 751 for 1,154 for 10,951 yards and 101 touchdowns from 2007-10, all the second-best totals in the state. He started his career at BYU, but after redshirting as a freshman, he converted to wide receiver in 2012, suffered a neck injury that required emergency spinal-fusion surgery, opted to return to quarterback to try to minimize his risk of reinjury and eventually transferred to Snow Junior College, where he started last season.
His unusual route came full circle against Falk, who took a much more direct route to Wazzu after setting Utah high school single-season passing records with 330 completions and 562 attempts while averaging 328.9 yards per contest in 2012.
Before the game, Kuresa told the Seattle Times, “Luke Falk and I, we are high-school rivals from the same town. It’s going to be fun in that sense."
And for Kuresa, it certainly was.
