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Jim Shorin/stanfordphoto.com
Football

Sundays With Soltau

BERKELEY, Calif. – Big-time players step up in Big Games. That was the case Saturday in the 121st battle between Stanford and Cal.
 
The Cardinal received contributions across the board, but sophomore cornerback Paulson Adebo, senior inside linebacker Bobby Okereke and wide receiver JJ Arcega-Whiteside stood out.
 
Let's start with Adebo. No. 2 in the nation with 17 pass breakups coming in, he added two more and intercepted two passes. The first stopped a potential Cal scoring drive early in the fourth quarter and left most in the crowd of 57,857 at Memorial Stadium mesmerized.
 
It was arguably the most spectacular interception in college football this season by Adebo, who has quickly established himself as one of the nation's premier players at his position.
 
Adebo made a diving one-handed grab with his right hand near the back of the end zone, cradling the ball under his arm as he hit the turf. He was mobbed by his teammates.
 
"Bar none, it's probably the best catch I've had in a game," said Adebo, who contributed 66 receptions and eight interceptions during his junior and senior seasons at Mansfield High School in Texas. "I was just trying to make a play."
 
Arcega-Whiteside's specialty is acrobatic catches. But like most in attendance, he couldn't believe what he saw.
 
"I don't think I've ever seen an interception that crazy before," he said.
 
Adebo sealed the 23-13 victory by pilfering his second Chase Garbers pass with 2:32 remaining, tipping the ball to himself and carted it 43 yards to the Cal 3. Senior running back Cameron Scarlett scored on the next play to extend Stanford's winning streak in the rivalry to a series record nine consecutive games.
 
"I got to watch the replay a couple times," said Okereke. "He's an incredible player. He's a magician with the ball in his hand."
 
Cardinal head coach David Shaw gave Adebo the game ball in the locker room afterwards and he led the team in the traditional C-House cheer following a victory.
 
"Phenomenal," said Shaw, the Bradford M. Freeman Director of Football, of the first interception. "You won't find a better one in football."  
 
Adebo's jaw-dropping theft didn't happen by accident. It ranked No. 1 Saturday night on ESPN's Top 10 Plays of the Day.
 
"For 20 or 30 minutes after practice, he's practicing those catches," Arcega-Whiteside said. "We knew eventually one of them was going to happen."
 
Shaw compared Adebo's work ethic to Christian McCaffrey, now a star running back for the Carolina Panthers. When he makes big plays, he acts like he's been there before.
 
"He just wants to get back in the huddle," Shaw said of Adebo.

Adebo established single-season school records for pass breakups (19) and passes defended (23), eclipsing the previous marks of 17 and 22 set by Vaughn Bryant in 1993. 
 
Asked about his rapid ascension as a first-year starter, Adedo said, "I think it's a testament to our DB room. We're very competitive and push each other every day. Credit to coach (Duane) Akina and coach (Lance) Anderson for helping me along."

As redshirt freshman last year, Adebo watched his first Big Game from the Cardinal sideline.
 
"Everybody talked about how highly-emotional it is, but you can't understand until you are actually in that situation," he said, "Having played in that game now, I really understand how much it means to both schools, teams and everybody invested in it."
 

 
Tone-setter: Okereke collected a team-high 13 tackles – seven solo – and forced a fumble for an injury-depleted unit that didn't permit a touchdown until the final 10 seconds. He delivered several bone-jarring hits, leveling Garbers on a first-quarter scramble.
 
"You have a quarterback out there who wants to run and try to establish that, so you have to let him know you have to slide," said Okereke.
 
Thin at inside linebacker, Okereke and senior Sean Barton (nine tackles) had busy afternoons.
 
"Just let the chains loose and played," Okereke said. "We were on special teams and playing every play on defense. Just out there having fun, playing with each other and playing for each other."
 
Okereke paced the team in tackles last year with 96 and leads again with 91 stops this season. With one game left, he has 235 for his career.

What did it mean to finish it without losing to Cal?
 
"Bragging rights for five years is pretty special," Okereke said.
 

 
Happy returns: Arcega-Whiteside, ranked second in the country in touchdown receptions entering the contest, didn't add to his total but was a big contributor. After missing half of the Washington game and sitting out against Oregon State with an injury, he caught five passes for 109 yards. All five produced first downs.
 
His playmaking ability and experience enabled junior quarterback K.J. Costello to stretch the Cal defense and keep it honest with the running game. Arcega-Whiteside's presence became even more important when Stanford's leading receiver Trenton Irwin went down with a first-half injury.
 
"It's tough," said Arcega-Whiteside. "He and I have been side by side for the last two or three years. We've got great receivers and great depth. I knew the talent level and focus wasn't going to drop off at all."

Arcega-Whiteside and many teammates had an extra week to heal up from injuries when the Big Game was rescheduled from Nov. 17 due to poor air quality from the devasating Camp Fire in Butte County.
 
"We had an emotional roller-coaster," he said. "We were getting ready to get on the bus and come up here and all of a sudden we don't have a game. It was nice to give everybody a week to recover, get better focus and watch a lot of film. It was more positive than negative."
 

 
Kings of California: Stanford (8-4, 6-3 Pac-12) closed out the regular season with three straight wins and will play Pittsburgh (7-6, 6-2) in the Hyundai Sun Bowl on Dec. 31 in El Paso, Texas. It marks a program-record 10th consecutive postseason appearance for the Cardinal, 14-14 all-time. The contest will be televised by CBS at 11 a.m. PT.

Stanford is officially King of California after sweeping Cal, UCLA and USC for the third time in four years. The Cardinal also knocked off non-conference foes San Diego State and UC Davis.
 

 
Thing of beauty: Stanford struck for the first touchdown late in the first quarter on a perfectly-executed 46-yard screen pass from Costello to Scarlett. He was sprung by great blocks from sophomore tight end Colby Parkinson and fifth-year senior guard Brandon Fanaika.

Scarlett said there was an emphasis on starting quickly. He fired up his teammates before the game, then backed it up with his play.
 
"We struggled with starting fast this year," he said. "Since I played in this game, I just wanted to be the voice for a lot of the younger guys and told them we need to keep the energy up."
 
Scarlett caught three passes for 54 yards and ran four times for 12, his late scoring run capping the win.
 
"That was fun," said Scarlett. "We haven't had the big people out there for a while. I loved seeing a fullback in front of me clearing stuff out and then Fanaika coming around."
 
Strong finish: Costello guided the Cardinal to scoring drives on its first two possessions to give Stanford a 10-0 advantage it didn't surrender. He hit seven of his first nine throws, causing the Bears to ramp up their pass rush.
 
Costello finished 18 of 29 for 237 yards and threw a scoring pass for the 16th consecutive game. The last Cardinal quarterback to accomplish the feat was Andrew Luck in 2010-11.
 
Senior running back Bryce Love also figured heavily, racking up 74 yards on 22 carries, and caught two passes for 19 yards against the physical and gang-tacking Cal defense.
 

 
Record blast: Senior punter Jake Bailey crushed school and Big Game record 84-yard punt late in the third quarter, eclipsing the previous program mark of 79 set by Frankie Albert in 1940 against Oregon State. Kicking from his 16, Bailey's boot carried to about the Cal 20 and rolled into the end zone for a touchback, junior cornerback Treyjohn Butler nearly downing it at the 1.
 
"Richard (McNitzky) gave me a perfect snap and I did what I'm trained to do," Bailey said. "The punt just came off really fast. The wind picked up right as I punted it. It was the perfect storm."
 
Bailey said it took a while to adjust to the wind, which knocked down several punts. He averaged 49.5 yards on six attempts and five of his six kickoffs went for touchbacks.
 
"I figured it out at the end of the end of the day," said Bailey.

He took great pride in retraining the Axe.
 
"Nine in a row is pretty special for the program," Bailey said. "I'm 4-0, which I'm super-excited about. Never lost to those guys."
 
He was one of the first to celebrate with the prized trophy afterward.
 
"It's always a senior thing to go grab the Axe," said Bailey. "I made sure I had JJ and Ryan Beecher (inside linebacker) right next to me."
 
Helmet decals: Each team wore helmet decals to recognize victims of the tragic fires in Paradise, Calif.
 
"We tried to honor them today," said Shaw. "It was a rough couple of weeks and thankfully the rains came and got the fire contained. Hopefully now we can start to rebuild as all Californians. Hopefully one day soon a lot of lives will be put back together."


 
Extra points Irwin caught one pass for 10 yards to extend his consecutive-game streak of making at least one reception in 40 games, the seventh-longest in the country … Stanford forced three turnovers and is 8-0 this season when creating at least one ... Junior guard Nate Herbig gave the offense a boost by returning to the starting lineup for the first time since Oct. 6 against Utah … Freshman wide receiver Michael Wilson stepped in for Irwin on punt returns and provided a nifty 21-yard effort from his own 6. He also caught one pass … Sophomore wide receiver Connor Wedington caught two passes and will not play in the bowl game to preserve his redshirt year … Fifth-year senior cornerback Alijah Holder rejoined the starting lineup after sitting out the first half due to a targeting penalty last week against UCLA ... Coby Fleener, a first team All-American tight end in 2011 and second-round pick in the 2012 NFL Draft, served as the honorary captain. He was joined for the pre-game coin toss by Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne.
 
Quotable.
"Everybody likes to score touchdowns, but I think I made the right choice." Paulson Adebo on playing cornerback