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 game’s 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 Montgomery’s 46-yard punt return to the Cougars 16 set up Stanford’s 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 Hogan’s third touchdown pass of the game - a 4-yarder to Taboada for a 24-10 lead.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Stanford’s defense came in leading the nation with an average of 8.6 points allowed per game. … Stanford held its 29th straight opponent to under 30 points and its 13th straight regular-season foe to under 20. … Stanford has scored at least 10 points in a nation-leading 88 straight games.