Sept 7, 2003
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By GREG BEACHAM
AP Sports Writer
STANFORD, Calif. - Luke Powell caught 12 passes for 172 yards and twotouchdowns as Stanford won its opener, beating San Jose State 31-10 Saturdaynight in the Silicon Valley's annual rivalry game.
Freshman Trent Edwards passed for 278 yards after relieving Chris Lewis inthe second quarter, and J.R. Lemon rushed for 103 yards and two touchdowns inthe Cardinal's easy victory.
Stanford rallied from an early 10-point deficit and racked up 457 yards intotal offense for its third straight win over the Spartans (1-2), who hadlittle to show for Scott Rislov's school-record 66 pass attempts.
The Cardinal were led by Powell, a senior receiver who excelled mostly as akick returner in his first three seasons. He set career highs for receptionsand yards, catching TD passes of 30 and 20 yards while falling two short of theschool record for catches.
Rislov went 28-of-66 for 261 yards for the Spartans, who followed up lastweek's 65-3 pasting at Florida with a mediocre offensive game. After taking thelead on Yonus Davis' first-quarter scoring run and Jeff Carr's 39-yard fieldgoal, the Spartans didn't score again.
Rislov broke a 1978 school record for passes, but he completed just 19 afterthe first quarter.
After 12 games at Stanford, coach Buddy Teevens has three wins - two againstSan Jose State. The Cardinal had 563 total yards in last season's win over theSpartans.
Lewis won the starting job in training camp, but he went 3-for-7 beforebeing replaced by Edwards. The redshirt freshman, who went 21-of-38, promptly led the Cardinal on three straight scoring drives midway through the second quarter.
Edwards was cool and collected in his first game, shrugging off aninterception on his second pass and several hard hits.
Powell was primarily responsible for Edwards' first career TD pass,adjusting his route and reaching over his back shoulder to grab it in thecorner of the end zone.
After Casey Carroll stripped the ball from Davis on the Spartans' nextpossession, Jared Newberry recovered at the 6. On the next play, Lemon rushedfor a score - and after a punt, Powell added a 20-yard TD catch 2:07 beforehalftime.
Edwards led a final fourth-quarter scoring drive capped by Lemon's 3-yard TDrun.