PROVO — In front of a mostly blue, respectably red sellout crowd and a national television audience, the centaur vanquished the spider.

Bear Bachmeier threw for 166 yards and a touchdown, and ran for 62 yards and a score as No. 15 BYU improved to 7-0 with a 24-21 win over No. 23 Utah in front of 64,794 fans Saturday night at LaVell Edwards Stadium.

LJ Martin ran for 122 yards in the win for BYU (7-0, 4-0 Big 12), his fifth game over the century mark of his junior campaign.

Daniel Bray ran for 121 yards for Utah (5-2, 2-2 Big 12), including a 49-yard touchdown that gave the Utes their first lead of the game to open the fourth quarter.

But Bachmeier played beyond his years, responding with an immediate answer and a pair of touchdown runs by Parker Kingston and himself to slam the door shut on the Cougars’ third consecutive win in the rivalry series that dates back to 1922 (or 1896, depending on who you ask).

With one run — and a hurdle, a few darts to receivers Chase Roberts and Parker Kingston and tight end Carsen Ryan — the true freshman from Murrieta, California, who Portland State coach Bruce Barney once applauded as a “got dang centaur” wrote his name in rivalry lore.

How did it feel?

“It was crazy, it was exhilarating, it was a lot of emotions,” he said. “But it was good to get the win.”

It’s BYU’s longest winning streak over the Utes since winning four straight from 1989-92. For the first time in a long time, there are players — redshirt juniors and seniors — who have never lost to Utah.

Faletau Satuala had a career-high 12 tackles and a tackle for loss for the second game for BYU, and Tanner Wall added 10 tackles and an interception for BYU, the 3.5-point underdogs who also got a 26-yard field goal from Will Ferrin.

Utah out-gained its archrival with 470 yards to just 370. But the Utes were plagued by penalties (six, for 29 yards), miscues that included a muffed punt recovered by Talan Alfrey, and a limited run game outside of quarterback Devon Dampier.

The New Mexico transfer nicknamed “Spida” also threw for 244 yards and two touchdowns, including a 2-yard touchdown toss to Larry Simmons with just under 90 seconds remaining for the final scoreline.

But the Utes only led once in a game that was never separated by more than 10 points. That’s to be expected when these two teams meet; 21 of the last 25 meetings have been decided by a single score.

The last two wins were followed by a field storming at LaVell Edwards Stadium, a polite overflowing of the wall that included university president C. Shane Reese crowd surfing among the students.

“We told them not to storm the field,” BYU coach Kalani Sitake said cheekily, before adding: “They did it any ways.”

So when Bray scored from 49 yards out to give Utah its first lead, at 14-10 with 14:15 remaining, there was no sense of panic. Not from Sitake. Not from Martin. But especially not from BYU’s centaur assistant captain.

“We had a lot of momentum moving the ball,” said Martin, whose 26 carries were 11 more than the next closer rusher: Dampier. “Of course, drives were stalling out. But moving the ball overall, we were doing a good job.

“We just knew we needed to finish a drive,” he added. “We felt like we were due for one. Going into it we kept the confidence, stayed believing like coach Kalani would say, and just believed we would score.”

The freshman connected with Kingston and Ryan on back-to-back darts for a combined 43 yards. On the next play, he drew a late-hit penalty that ejected Utah’s Lander Barton with a targeting penalty.

Then Kingston found the end zone like the former Roy High quarterback has many times: a 12-yard end-around that ended in front of a stunned visiting supporters’ section in the northwest corner of the stadium, moments after the same fans had been chanting, “Why so quiet?” at the overwhelming masses of blue surrounding them.

Wall pulled an interception of Dampier on the next drive, and Bachmeier’s legs did the rest, carrying a bevy of Utah defenders towards the goal line on a 22-yard run before offensive guard Weylin Lapuaho pushed him into the end zone for what became the game-winning touchdown.

“We just knew that the team that we had, we weren’t going to lose the game,” said Roberts, who had two catches for 43 yards and a touchdown. “We knew that drive at the end to put us up 10 was huge.”