SALT LAKE CITY — Jake Retzlaff engineered two scoring drives in the fourth quarter and Will Ferrin hit a 44-yard field goal with four seconds left to keep the undefeated season of No. 9 BYU with a 22-21 win over Utah on Saturday night.

The Cougars’ final drive was extended by a defensive holding penalty on fourth down as the largest crowd in Utah’s Rice-Eccles Stadium history (54,383) thought the game was over.

“I was in the end zone with my back in the end zone after going down (on a sack), and it wasn’t a good feeling. But looking up and seeing that flag, I had new life,” Retzlaff said.

Utah AD Mark Harlan took the microphone in the Utah press box before the coaches and players appeared and criticized the officiating team for their “disgusting performance.”

“This game was absolutely stolen from us,” he said.

Retzlaff, who was 15 of 33 for 219 yards, passed for 30 yards to Chase Roberts and 12 yards to Darius Lassiter before Hinckley Ropati ran for 14 yards to put BYU (9-0, 6-0 Big 12) in position for Ferrin’s kick. .

“That first down was the catalyst. And so that’s a key thing to get, and once we got that, however we get it, we hit the ground running,” Retzlaff said.

Trailing 21-10 at halftime, BYU coach Kilani Sitake told his team not to panic.

“We felt like we had Utah’s best shot, but we hadn’t delivered ours yet,” Sitake said. “And then we shut them down in the second half.”

The Cougars remain the last undefeated team in the Big 12 and in prime position for a bid to the conference championship game.

“It’s great to be a part of that … and to be able to be in that role,” Ferrin said.

Retzlaff scored on a short 1-yard run with 12:35 left to complete a 95-yard drive. But the 2-point conversion was intercepted by Cam Calhoun to keep Utah (4-5, 1-5) ahead 21-19.

Utah’s Brandon Rose, who was the third quarterback coming into the season, got his first career start after Cam Rising was lost for the season and Isaac Wilson struggled.

Rose ran twice for first downs and then completed his first positive pass of the game for a 20-yard touchdown to Brant Kuithe to cap a 64-yard drive early in the second quarter. Kuithe added a 1-yard touchdown run out of wildcat formation with 5:31 left before halftime, but later left the game with a season-ending foot injury.

Capitalizing on Rose’s interception in the third quarter, Will Ferrin made the second of three field goals.

Rose was 12-for-21 for 112 yards, but just 4-of-11 for 25 yards in the second half.

Utah’s Zemaiah Vaughn stopped Roberts for a 2-yard loss on a fourth-and-1 pass, which led to Rose’s 7-yard touchdown pass to Micah Bernard to make it 21-10 at halftime.

Jakob Robinson’s interception in the first quarter was turned into a 23-yard field goal by Ferrin.

In the second quarter, BYU’s Keelan Marion returned a kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown, his second of the season.

Utah had won nine straight in the series before dropping the 2021 game 26-17 and now this one.

“Tough way to lose a ball game,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. “Our players played hard. They did everything they could from start to finish. … It’s unfortunate that it turned out the way it did.”

Retzlaff said John Beck, who was the last BYU quarterback to win at Utah 18 years ago, texted him this week to wish him luck.

“I wanted to try to replicate what another No. 12 did during that time,” Retzlaff said. “Hell!”

BYU: BYU’s offense managed just two field goals before coming alive in the fourth quarter. The Cougars mismanaged the clock by taking their final timeout too soon, and then a false start called for a 10-second runoff that ended the first half when they were in field goal range.

Utah: Bernard, who was Utah’s lone offensive bright spot before his second-quarter performance, had 17 carries for 78 yards and passed 2,000 career yards. Rose was hot in the second quarter, but the offense faltered after that. The Utes have lost five in a row, but none by more than 13 points.

Five of BYU’s head coaches played or coached at Utah, and longtime Ute coach Kyle Whittingham played at BYU in the 1980s.

BYU hosts Kansas next Saturday.

Utah plays No. 21 Colorado next Saturday.

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AP College Football: and