The last time Ohio State took the field at The Horseshoe, a Rose Bowl berth was on the line.

Much less was at stake Saturday when the Gray team defeated the Scarlet team 17-14 in the annual Spring Game.

Taurian Washington accounted for both of the Gray team’s touchdowns, as quarterback Kenny Guiton connected with the receiver on a 45-yard game-winning strike with 55 seconds remaining.

“I just had to go to my moneymaker,” Guiton said about hooking up with Washington. “He got me first half, so I thought if I tried him a few times in the second half, he was going to come through again and he did.”

The Scarlet team had one final chance at tying the game, but Devin Barclay’s 56-yard field goal attempt fell short.

Both offenses showed sparks early and late, with little in between.

After the Scarlet team failed to move the chains on its first drive, Guiton found Washington for a 28-yard score on the Gray team’s opening possession. Quarterback Terrelle Pryor answered right back with a swift, four-play drive that resulted in a 12-yard touchdown to Dane Sanzenbacher to even the score at 7-7.

That score held until the fourth quarter, when freshman Drew Basil kicked a 47-yard field goal to put the Gray team ahead.

Joe Bauserman, in relief of Pryor, marched the Scarlet team down the field with a 70-yard drive. Running back Bo DeLande capped off the series with a 4-yard touchdown, propelling the Scarlet team to a 14-10 advantage.

Pryor only played the first quarter as he continues his recovery from February knee surgery. After a sluggish start, he finished 8-for-12 for 108 yards and a touchdown.

“You have to play the hand that’s dealt to you and he knew that he wasn’t going to play much,” coach Jim Tressel said. “He knew that he couldn’t go live on the run part of it. He focused on what he could do, which was work on his footwork, coverage recognition, decision-making and so forth. I thought he did a pretty fair job.”

While the OSU spotlight typically shines on Pryor, Guiton stole it away for the afternoon.

The Houston, Texas, native completed 11 of 21 passes for 167 yards and two touchdowns while making his case for the No. 2 quarterback job. His main competition, Bauserman, finished just 6-for-15 for 75 yards and tossed a pair of interceptions.

[Guiton] “looked awesome,” lineman Jack Mewhort said. “He’s a great quarterback. I watched his high school film before he even came here and knew he would be amazing on the field someday. I don’t think anyone gave him enough credit and he proved himself out there today.”

Guiton, who didn’t see the field as a freshman, shrugged off the battle to back up Pryor.

“There are no hard feelings between me and Joe,” he said. “We know it’s just competition and nothing personal.”

On the Gray team’s final possession, Guiton took a helmet to the knee. After being attended to, he walked off the field and said after the game that the pain he initially felt had subsided.

Tressel said he is pleased with the depth that the healthy competition at quarterback provides.

“Under the gun, we tried to get those two to throw it as many times as they could,” Tressel said. “If you go back and look at each of those performances, [you’ll] see that they each did some good things.

“We really felt going into the last week of spring practice that we weren’t sure as if our depth had progressed as much as we’d like it to. … You need to have a deep team to have a chance at the championship.”

Last season, more than 95,000 fans flocked to Ohio Stadium on a sweltering April afternoon to watch the scrimmage. But with gray skies and intermittent drizzle, only 65,223 people showed up to watch the team’s final tune-up until the summer.

OSU opens the 2010 regular season with a Thursday night matchup against Marshall, the team’s first midweek night game since 1997.