Cancer survivor gets in Gopher game

Oregon clears path by beating Huskies

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — It was a moment Casey O’Brien dreamed about, but thought would never occur.

The Minnesota walk-on, a four-time cancer survivor, made his first collegiate appearance Saturday in the Golden Gophers’ 42-7 victory over Rutgers. O’Brien was the holder on three successful PAT’s for No. 20 Minnesota (7-0, 4-0 Big Ten).

He was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a rare bone cancer, when he was a freshman in high school. With Saturday’s outcome well in hand, Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck called O’Brien’s No. 14 to hold for the point after for the Golden Gophers’ fourth extra point of the game.

After the kick, the entire team mobbed him on the field.

“Everything I’ve gone through was worth it,” O’Brien said. “It’s a moment I’ve been thinking about as a kid. It showed how much those guys cared about me.”

O’Brien’s parents f lew in from Minnesota to witness what Fleck called “the most inspirational thing I’ve ever seen.”

“They said he (O’Brien) would never play,” Fleck noted. “Well, he just played for a 7-0 team. That’s what Minnesota is all about. He’s a motivator and a fighter.”

O’Brien hasn’t traveled much with the team and nearly got his chance last week at home in Nebraska.

“I was bummed that I didn’t get in,” he said, “but I went to practice on Sunday and continued to work hard.”

O’Brien had nine months of chemotherapy and reconstructive knee surgery that lasted more than eight hours after his freshman year of high school. He convinced his doctors to convert from quarterback to placeholder.

“I knew that I needed football in my life, and that had been something that had been there my whole life, and I just wasn’t ready to give it up.”

The hard work paid off.

“I look at myself as a football player. I just show up and play,” he said.

Winner

■ Oregon. The Ducks had quite the gut check, down 14 on the road against Washington early in the third quarter. They would score touchdowns on three of their first four possessions in the second half, then stymie the Huskies three times in a row to close out a 35-31 victory.

It was a stellar second half for quarterback Justin Herbert, who finished with 280 yards and four touchdowns. And it also keeps Oregon (6-1, 4-0 Pac-12) in the playoff picture. To stay there, the Ducks have to win out and get some help.

But the path to the Pac-12 North title is almost entirely cleared out. Oregon is up three games in the loss column on everyone in its half of the league except for plucky Oregon State, which picked off California on the road Saturday. It isn’t outlandish to think the Ducks could seal their division by the second weekend of November.

■ Navy. The Midshipmen rolled past South Florida, 35-3, to improve to 5-1 heading into next week’s date with Tulane. Malcolm Perry ran for 188 yards and two touchdowns for Navy, which allowed its fewest points to an FBS opponent since a 17-3 defeat of Army in 2009.

Losers

■ Missouri. Just when it seemed like the Tigers could be trusted after rattling off five consecutive victories, they went and dropped a 21-14 decision to a Vanderbilt team coming off a loss at home to UNLV. Anyone who wants a sentence to sum up the vagaries of college football, use that one.

As for the Tigers (5-2, 2-1 SEC), they still have back-to-back games against Georgia (Nov. 9) and Florida (Nov. 16) next month. There’s still a path to finishing atop the SEC East, though a bowl ban that remains under appeal and Saturday’s loss to the Commodores is a deflating combination for Barry Odom’s team.

■ The Sooner Schooner. Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt when it crashed. But this was easily the most harrowing part of the day for Oklahoma.