Stepfan Taylor ran for a career-high 189 yards and a touchdown, and No. 22 Stanford overwhelmed California, 21-3, in Berkeley, Calif., on Saturday for a third straight victory against its rival.
In the 115th meeting between the Bay Area schools and the first at remodeled Memorial Stadium, the Cardinal (5-2 overall, 3-1 Pacific-12 Conference) outgained the Bears 475 to 217 yards, outrushed them 252-3 and never lost its grip on the coveted Axe, which players paraded around the turf while Bears fans exited in silence.
“This is a blueprint game,” said Stanford coach David Shaw, now in his second year. “This is what we want to do.”
Josh Nunes completed 16 of 31 passes for 214 yards and a touchdown for Stanford. He also fumbled and threw an interception late in the fourth quarter to stop what could have been – and perhaps should have been – an even more lopsided score.
Cal (3-5, 2-3) had not scored so few points in the Big Game since a 10-3 loss in 1998. Zach Maynard was sacked four times, the Bears fumbled three times – losing two of them – and had another interception of Nunes wiped out by a penalty.
Taylor (3,616) passed Toby Gerhart (3,522) for second on Stanford’s career rushing list. Now only Darrin Nelson (4,033) has more.
At No. 11 USC 50, Colorado 6: Matt Barkley threw for 298 yards and six touchdowns while setting a Trojans career record for TD passes, and junior wide receiver Robert Woods also set a pair of school marks himself in the victory over the Buffaloes.
Barkley and Woods climbed atop the record book for the Trojans (6-1, 4-1) by connecting on scoring throws of 39, 29, 17 and 3 yards in the first 35 minutes against hapless Colorado (1-6, 1-3).
That gave Woods a school record for TD receptions in a single game.
Barkley hit Woods with his 100th career touchdown pass in the second quarter to surpass Matt Leinart’s USC and conference records. Woods passed Dwayne Jarrett on USC’s career receptions list a few minutes later with his 217th career catch.
Barkley tied his own single-game USC mark for TD passes while going 19-for-20 to break Rick Neuheisel’s conference record for completion percentage in a game with at least 20 passes.
At No. 8 Oregon State 21, Utah 7: The Beavers’ defense helped out when quarterback Cody Vaz struggled in the rain in beating the Utes for OSU’s best start in more than a century.
The Oregon State defense had an interception and a fumble recovery that led to two first-half touchdown runs by Storm Woods, who scored all three touchdowns for OSU (6-0, 4-0), which hadn’t opened a season 6-0 since 1907. The win also made the Beavers bowl eligible.
Travis Wilson threw for 172 yards and a touchdown for Utah (2-5, 0-4).
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