SALT LAKE CITY -- He is 5-foot-9, which made carrying him especially easy for a bunch of Utah football players.

The Utes could've hoisted their kicker, Louie Sakoda, all Thursday night after he blasted a 37-yard field goal to defeat Oregon State as time expired, 31-28.

Take notice, BCS. Sakoda, all 178 pounds of him, kept Utah on pace for a season-ending clash with rival BYU by staying undefeated.

At 6-0, this was the one 15th-ranked Utah knew it had to get by to have any chance. This was the toughest opponent outside the Cougars, and maybe TCU.

It sure looked that way until Sakoda's boot sailed crisply through the uprights on the game's final play after quarterback Brian Johnson continued his blitzkrieg of late fourth-quarter heroics.

Utah trailed, 28-20, with 2:18 remaining after the upstart Beavers -- 2-3 after failing to follow up on last Thursday's upset of top-ranked USC -- drove to score a touchdown on an 80-yard drive.

The crowd at Rice-Eccles Stadium couldn't have been more dismayed, the home team seemingly put away in front of the school's third-largest fan base to ever see a game (45,599).

A season, for all of its games and plays, can come down to one or two decisions. Utah's run at staying undefeated, and in the BCS hunt with its archrival, looked like it might be decided when the Utes chose to punt rather than try a 54-yard field goal with the wind at Sakoda's back.

Trailing 21-20, with just under nine minutes left, getting Sakoda's usually reliable foot looked like it would have been a respectable option. The kick appeared to be within his distance, if the swirling wind would cut him a break.

Instead, Utah would end up appearing to regret the decision to possibly take a lead. Kyle Whittingham's team looked like it would never receive a comparable chance to oust OSU.

Sakoda, who also punts -- he's arguably the best at both skills in the Mountain West Conference -- ended up knocking one into the end zone. Utah had been stuck at OSU's 37-yard line, facing fourth-and-5.

That's when the Beavers appeared to take over the game for good, capping off a touchdown drive with a two-yard pass.

But Johnson, who finished 17-for-30 passing, found the perfect time to be...well, perfect. He was 10-of-22 for 110 yards before his last two drives, on which he went 7-for-8 for 91 yards.

He hustled his crew 60 yards on four consecutive passes to pull within two points. Then Johnson picked those up, on a second try after OSU was ruled for pass interference, by rolling to the right corner of the end zone from about two yards out.

Pandemonium started. And it would only get louder.

OSU went 3-and-out on its next possession, and gave Utah the ball at its own 45 with 1:06 left.

Johnson finally threw an incomplete pass to start the drive, but he recovered with a nifty shovel pass to Darrell Mack for six yards. He hit for eight, then 16, to get the ball back to OSU's 24.

It was within Sakoda's distance, and Whittingham was confident enough to waste 34 seconds of the clock. He let it run to two, called timeout, and the crowd erupted with "Lou's."

The jubilation flooded in soon after, as teammates mobbed their kicker then fans stormed the field to join in. If Rice-Eccles had been haunted at all by the last game-winning play to take place there, BYU's famous last-second touchdown pass by John Beck to Jonny Harline in 2006, then this will be remembered by the Utes just as easily.

Utah, with its next game at Wyoming on Oct. 11, had times when it was maddeningly inconsistent. Running plays would go nowhere. Passes from the sometimes erratic Johnson -- who even had an second-quarter interception returned for a touchdown -- would go short or wide of the intended target. Johnson also had a third-quarter fumble that led to another OSU touchdown.

OSU couldn't keep up with everything, though.

There were a handful of indirect snaps, Mack tried a halfback pass and a team that doesn't fancy itself a heavy option-oriented team went for the gusto against the Beavers.

But it came down to the sure thing, Sakoda, who again ascended the role of hero.