Nov. 13, 2004
Final Stats | Quotes | Notes
By JANIE McCAULEY
AP Sports Writer
STANFORD, Calif. (AP) - Derek Anderson passed for 334 yards and threetouchdowns and Oregon State kept its bowl hopes alive, surviving a late scareto beat Stanford 24-19 on Saturday.
Anthony Wheat-Brown caught 11 passes for 117 yards for the Beavers (5-5, 4-3Pac-10), who now must beat archrival Oregon in next week's Civil War game to bebowl eligible.
Anderson connected with Dwight Wright, Mike Hass and Joe Newton forfirst-half touchdowns, and the Beavers outgained Stanford 370-248 despite adismal running game to defeat the Cardinal for the fourth straight time andfifth of six. Hass finished with eight catches for 110 yards.
The Beavers have won three in a row on the road for the first time since2000.
Stanford (4-6, 2-5) lost its fourth straight, was eliminated from bowlcontention, and is going to be hard pressed to improve on last season's 4-7finish when the Cardinal wrap up their season against fifth-ranked Californiain the Big Game next week.
Redshirt freshman T.C. Ostrander made his first collegiate start atquarterback for Stanford in place of injured starter Trent Edwards, who has asprained shoulder in his non-throwing arm.
Ostrander had a pretty 51-yard touchdown pass to Evan Moore negated becauseof holding just before halftime. After David Marrero's 62-yard punt return inthe third, Ostrander threw a 15-yard scoring pass to Mark Bradford to make it21-13.
Moore caught a 26-yard TD pass from Ostrander with 7:12 left, but theCardinal failed on the two-point conversion that would have tied the game.Moore had the ball in his grasp but couldn't hold on.
Alexis Serna answered with a 37-yard field goal for the Beavers with 1:23remaining, and Keith Ellison got a game-sealing interception moments later.
Ostrander was 17-for-45 with an interception and faced tough pressure allgame.
Anderson threw four interceptions and was sacked four times - a far cry fromhis dominant day in the teams' 2003 meeting.
Oregon State won 43-3 last November in Corvallis in a record-setting gamefor the Beavers. It was Oregon State's highest score and widest margin ofvictory in the series. The Beavers amassed 663 yards, the school'sthird-highest single-game total.
Saturday's game was an afternoon of missed opportunities for Stanford.
Oshiomogho Atogwe picked off a pass by Anderson on the game's first playfrom scrimmage and returned it 28 yards, but Stanford failed to get into theend zone from inside the 10 and settled for Michael Sgroi's 24-yard field goal.
Sgroi, who earlier this season made 10 straight field goals, missed twoother first-half field goals, wide to either side.
Atogwe had another interception in the third quarter and Stanford couldn'tscore, failing on fourth down in the red zone for the second straight series.Sgroi booted a career-long 50-yard field goal on the next possession.
But he also came up short on a 43-yarder in the fourth quarter.