Arizona rallies past Washington State 34–24 behind four Fifita touchdown passes

Arizona trailed Washington State by 14 points before its offense had settled in. By the end of Saturday night in Pullman, Noah Fifita had thrown four touchdown passes and the Wildcats had turned that opening hole into a 34–24 win. The ESPN final game summary records 297 passing yards for Fifita and a two-score, 129-yard receiving night for Tré Spivey.

Washington State made Arizona work for every part of the comeback. Caden Pinnick scored on an 11-yard run on the Cougars’ first drive. Safety Jackquintin Bal then took an interception back 25 yards, producing a 14–0 first-quarter lead. Fifita answered with a 28-yard touchdown to Spivey before the period ended. Their 4-yard connection in the second quarter tied the game, but Jack Stevens made a 33-yard field goal to send Washington State into halftime up 17–14.

The third quarter turned on Arizona’s defense and its next clean scoring chance. The Wildcats missed one field goal and had another blocked, yet did not let Washington State extend the lead. Fifita found freshman Caleb Smith for a 38-yard touchdown, giving Arizona its first advantage at 21–17. The ESPN scoring log confirms that Arizona did not trail again.

Michael Salgado-Medina added a 27-yard field goal early in the fourth, and Fifita’s 11-yard pass to Isaiah Mizell widened the gap. Washington State had one more answer: Pinnick hit Branden Ganashamoorthy for a 46-yard touchdown with 7:15 remaining. Arizona responded with a 51-yard Salgado-Medina field goal to close the scoring and protect the ten-point margin.

The yardage split reflected the recovery. Arizona finished with 447 total yards to Washington State’s 335, according to the final box. Spivey had done much of his damage by halftime, when the Wildcats were still behind. The later touchdowns to Smith and Mizell showed that Fifita could distribute the ball beyond his most productive receiver as the Cougars adjusted.

Arizona is 3–1 after the road win, while Washington State falls to 1–3. The Cougars had held the lead despite Arizona moving the ball: a defensive touchdown and two disrupted field-goal attempts kept the game on their terms through much of the third quarter. The Wildcats needed both cleaner possessions and a defensive pause to change it. The Wildcats’ official pregame notes identified this as the schools’ first meeting since their Pac-12 days. The reunion supplied familiar history, but the decisive story was Arizona’s in-game correction: from an early pick-six and two-score deficit to four Fifita passing touchdowns and a controlled finish.