EUGENE -- It was 11 minutes past 11 o’clock on Saturday night when the University of Oregon sent a freshman kicker named Camden Lewis onto the field to try to end Mike Leach’s haunting dominance of them with a field goal.

What?

You were expecting Arya Stark?

Lewis made the kick. Oregon beat Washington State 37-35 at Autzen Stadium. Leach, who had been as fun as a pebble wedged in the Ducks’ sneaker, walked off a loser against UO for the first time in five years. And then, in the mosh pit of celebrating players, coaches and fans at midfield a man wearing a beanie cap and standing 5-foot-6 lowered his shoulders and crept up on Oregon coach Mario Cristobal.

His name: Carlos Huerta.

Cristobal is 6-foot-4 and looks 250. His wife and two sons stood beside him, smiling. So did a Eugene Police Department officer, on high alert with students swirling around. But in an instant, the 175-pound Huerta slipped close to the Ducks’ coach, lowered his hips, wrapped his arms around Cristobal’s waist and lifted the Oregon coach off the ground and carried him for a couple of celebratory steps.

It wasn’t the best tackle of the night.

But it was a tackle.

Then, Huerta dropped Cristobal on his feet -- and the two men slapped backs, laughed, and hugged.

Turns out, Huerta and Cristobal have known each other since they attended Christopher Columbus High School together in Miami. They were roommates and teammates in college, too. They won national championships together with the Hurricanes, with Cristobal blocking and Huerta going from walk-on at Miami to an All-American kicker.

Saturday night was a big victory for Oregon.

Don’t let anyone tell you differently.

Cristobal’s program has already exorcised a couple of demons this season, beating Stanford and winning at Washington. But Leach presented a more challenging obstacle. He’d frustrated and tormented Oregon, carving them bit by bit in four straight wins. Cristobal, playing at home with his team trying to make a Pac-12 title game run, badly needed this one.

Now, understand, historically, the Ducks haven’t taken the Cougars as seriously as some other Pac-12 opponents. Nobody in Eugene gets the football program’s pocket schedule in August and circles the WSU game. That’s been a mistake. Washington, yes. Civil War, yes. USC and Stanford, yes. And I’m certain Leach, who has some Keyser Söze in him, prefers it that way.

Yes, Leach is sort of like the college football version of the fictional murdering drug lord antagonist from the movie “The Usual Suspects.” You know, a little mythical, rarely noticed, and especially dangerous because of it all. The coach spends Monday-Friday lulling you into delightful submission talking about battle axes, alien life and mascot fights, then Saturday comes and Leach walks in essentially unnoticed and chokes out your defensive coordinator.

On Saturday, Leach showed up at Autzen Stadium wearing khaki pants, sneakers, and a zip up jacket. He looked like a guy headed to a Saturday night at the movies. But instead of ordering popcorn and a soda, he ordered 50 pass plays.

Oregon was fortunate to win, really.

There were problems, it was sloppy, and WSU gave away points. But we’re not in the poetic and beautiful portion of the arc of Cristobal’s program growth. We’re in the muck stage. Cristobal is grabbing sloppy, ugly, unimpressive victories. They’re victories, sure. That’s the goal. You take them. But this program has work to do.

Oregon won. It beat Leach, finally. But I’m unsure what the Pac-12 Conference gained on Saturday. It was 2:11 a.m. in NYC, Boston, and Miami when that game-winning field goal was kicked. It was 1:11 a.m. in Chicago. It was 11:11 p.m. in San Francisco. How is that good for anybody?

Still it’s the teams in the stadium and the celebrating fans on the field I’ll focus on today. Oregon’s freshman kicker rose to meet an important moment. His coach believed in him. And afterward, Huerta -- a kicker with a line of game-winning kicks -- raced across the field, to find his old teammate.

I loved that scene.

Said Huerta: “He didn’t feel heavy to me.”

In high school, Huerta once won a playoff game with a 44-yard field goal. In college, he earned the nickname “The Iceman” on the way to setting Miami school records for scoring. He eventually landed in the UM Hall of Fame, and later, the NFL. He’s retired now, living in Lake Tahoe.

This weekend, though, it was a trip to Eugene, where Huerta said he didn’t get to see much of Cristobal. At least not until the post-game celebration.

“You know him, he’s always working," Huerta said. “I saw his family. I sat in his box. I cheered for Oregon.”

Then, he lifted his old teammate above it all.