MANHATTAN -- A sudden snow flurry that illuminated KSU Stadium just as suddenly brought Kansas State's offense back to life.
The No. 16-ranked Wildcats, reeling from a pair of fourth-quarter Nebraska touchdowns, saved their best for last Saturday night as they put together a 62-yard scoring drive in the last five minutes and held on for a 29-28 victory over the No. 4 Cornhuskers.
The touchdown, on Jonathan Beasley's 12-yard completion to Quincy Morgan with 2:52 left, set off a celebration among the stadium-record crowd of 53,811, including cheerleaders making snow angels on the lightly blanketed field.
The Wildcats (9-2 overall, 5-2 in the Big 12) then put together a final defensive stand, shutting down the Huskers on fourth down with 51 seconds to go.
"It's the biggest high I've had in a long time this year," K-State junior linebacker Ben Leber said. "We just had a really good game plan."
With the victory, K-State needs only to beat Missouri next week in Columbia to reach the Big 12 championship game and get a rematch with South Division champion Oklahoma.
The Wildcat defense held Nebraska, the nation's top rushing team, to 222 yards on the ground and 239 total. Offensively, Beasley completed 12 of 36 passes for 234 yards, including seven for a school regular-season record 199 yards to Morgan.
"I knew I had to come out and play well against Nebraska," said Morgan, who also had a 49-yard touchdown completion late in the second quarter to give the Wildcats a 17-14 halftime lead. "Coach said we needed a good game out of me and I wanted to play well for my teammates. I wanted to do my part for the team."
The Wildcats launched their winning drive after Dan Alexander put Nebraska up 28-23 on a 45-yard run with 9:53 left.
Following a Husker punt, they took over at their own 38 and got a 13-yard run from Roc Cartwright. Beasley had runs of 9 and 15 yard on the drive as well.
Nebraska, trailing 23-14 after three quarters had taken the lead on touchdown runs of 19 and 45 yards by Alexander.
Kansas State had a chance to put the game out of reach in the third quarter, but had to settle for field goals of 27 and 29 yards by Jamie Rheem after moving to the Nebraska 9- and 12-yard lines on its first two possessions.
After holding Nebraska to start the half, the Wildcats started at midfield. A 40-yard completion from Jonathan Beasley to Morgan put the ball at the Husker 11, but the next three plays yielded just 2 yards.
The Wildcats immediately got the ball back when Alexander fumbled on Nebraska's first play following the kickoff. Jason Kazar recovered at the Husker 19-yard line.
Beasley picked up 6 yards on a first-down keeper and Josh Scobey got three more to the 10. But on third down Scobey was stopped for a 2-yard loss, forcing K-State to try the field goal.
The Wildcats squandered one other chance in the third quarter when Mike Ronsick picked up a first down on a fake field goal, but was stripped of the ball by Nebraska's Scott Shanle and Joe Walker recovered.
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