For the first time in two years, Cougar fans got to see their team win a homecoming game in Martin Stadium on Saturday, a 52-31 drubbing of Oregon State.

Leading 45-17 at halftime, redshirt sophomore Luke Falk set a Pac-12 record by throwing for six touchdowns in the first half. Falk completed 39 of his 50 passes on the day, totaling 407 yards to lead Washington State (4-2, 2-1 Pac-12) to victory.

Senior wide receiver Dom Williams hauled in 11 catches for 158 yards and two of Falk’s six touchdown, passes and a young Beaver (2-4, 0-3) defense surrendered 520 total yards to the Cougs.

“I’d say that is as effective as we’ve seen Luke run the offense,” Head Coach Mike Leach said the postgame press conference. “I thought we had good tempo and pass protection.”

After Oregon sacked him seven times the week prior, the offensive line gave Falk ample time to make his reads, and his receivers took advantage of a questionable OSU secondary to find wide open spaces in the middle of the field. OSU’s defensive line was unable to apply pressure on Falk, recording just two sacks for the game, and failed to keep the Cougars off the scoreboard in any of their drives in the first half.

“I think in the first half we came out with a lot of energy, good pace” Falk said. “It was just my job to get the ball in guys’ hands.”

Redshirt junior Gabe Marks caught six passes for 95 yards and one touchdown and was an invaluable target for Falk in third-down situations.

“That’s how we know we can play, and want to play,” Marks said.

Up 28 points at halftime, the second half proved to be a different story for the Cougars. The team failed to score an offensive touchdown – junior safety Shalom Luani scored on an 84-yard interception return in the fourth quarter – and there was an obvious drop off in both production and focus from players.

“I thought we played a spotty second half,” Leach said. “There was a sense of relaxation from players out there. We need a 60-minute offensive performance.”

Leach, who earned his 100th career win on Saturday, emphasized the need for better blocking from receivers and focus on fundamentals to avoid such lapses in efficiency.

WSU struggled to get the OSU read-option offense off the field in the second half, Falk threw two interceptions and the special teams unit botched an onside kick recovery, all of which resulted in an uncomfortable limp to the finish line in the fourth quarter.

“We came out that second half and we didn’t quite finish the way we wanted to,” redshirt sophomore linebacker Peyton Pelluer said.

Luani mentioned that the win over UO had no carryover into his team’s handling of an over-matched Beavers team, though he affirmed that it was more a matter of everyone doing their jobs and being in the right spots.

As senior left tackle Joe Dahl pointed out, a resounding home win is something to be proud of, but the Cougars 2-1 conference record and 4-2 overall mark is more important.

“It was great to deliver in front of our home fans but more importantly, string together to consecutive conference wins,” Dahl said. “We’re normally just looking at (the season) week-to-week, but we know that we very easily could be 6-0 and that’s definitely something that was within the realm of possibility.”

Leach and Falk both asserted that they will have to clean things up for next week’s trip to Tucson to face the Arizona Wildcats (5-2, 2-2). WSU is set to run the gantlet of Pac-12 opponents in this next month, taking on nationally-ranked Stanford and UCLA in the upcoming four game stretch, as well as match-ups with both Arizona schools.

“We can’t be satisfied,” Leach said. “After all, we should have beat Cal. It was pretty much our own fault.”

The Cal game was certainly disheartening for WSU, but as it showed in its homecoming affair on Saturday, coaches and players have clearly moved past their struggles from the first month of the season.

Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Saturday in Tucson. The game will be broadcasted on the Pac-12 Networks.