SportsDirect Inc. staff
Oct 11, 2014
No. 22 Stanford 34, Washington State 17: Kevin Hogan threw for 284 yards and three touchdowns as the host Cardinal did just enough to win the Pac-12 matchup.
Remound Wright rushed for 98 yards and a score while Barry Sanders gained 68 yards on seven carries for Stanford (4-2, 2-1 Pac-12). Ty Montgomery caught seven passes for 72 yards and had a long punt return in the second quarter that set up a touchdown, while Greg Taboada caught the first two touchdown passes of his collegiate career for the Cardinal.
Conner Halliday, coming off an NCAA-record 734 passing yards in last week's loss to California, finished 42-of-69 for 292 yards and two touchdowns for Washington State (2-5, 1-3). River Cracraft finished with 14 receptions for 100 yards and Vince Mayle caught six passes for 78 yards, with both hauling in a TD pass.
Washington State twice cut its deficit to seven points in the second half, but Jordan Williamson kicked a 34-yard field goal with 8:13 left and Wright sealed the win with a 6-yard TD run with 1:38 remaining. The Cardinal scored 10 points in the gameกฏs first 5 1/2 minutes, with Williamson booting a 22-yard field goal and Hogan completing a 39-yard touchdown pass to Eric Cotton.
Halliday threw on 11 straight plays on Washington State's next possession, completing 10 passes - the last being a 9-yard touchdown toss to Mayle, but Montgomeryกฏs 46-yard punt return to the Cougars 16 set up Stanfordกฏs second touchdown as Hogan found Taboada for a 3-yard score to make it 17-7. Washington State closed the gap with a field goal early in the third quarter, but Stanford answered quickly with Hoganกฏs third touchdown pass of the game - a 4-yarder to Taboada for a 24-10 lead.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Stanfordกฏs defense came in leading the nation with an average of 8.6 points allowed per game. กญ Stanford held its 29th straight opponent to under 30 points and its 13th straight regular-season foe to under 20. กญ Stanford has scored at least 10 points in a nation-leading 88 straight games.