Cardinal Flies By UCLA

PASADENA, Calif. – Kevin Hogan played lights out from start to finish behind stellar protection from his offensive line as Stanford ended the game on a 31-3 run to shock No. 9 UCLA at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., Friday afternoon.

Stanford’s win gives the Cardinal the first seven-game winning streak by either team in the 86-game history of the series. Stanford outscored UCLA in all 14 halves over the seven-game span.

Hogan became the first Cardinal quarterback to beat UCLA four times in his career. Hogan is 4-0 against UCLA and 3-1 at the Rose Bowl in his three seasons of action.

Stanford received its only big scare of the game on the Bruins’ opening possession. After a Cardinal three-and-out, UCLA started the scoring with a five-play, 64-yard touchdown drive that took only 87 seconds to give the Bruins a 7-0 lead. Brett Hundley found Thomas Duarte for a 15-yard touchdown to cap the drive.

The Cardinal responded with three 10-play touchdown drives spanning 75 yards or longer to grab a 21-10 lead at halftime. Remound Wright scampered in from 1-yard out to tie the game at 7.

After a 42-yard field goal from Kaimi Fairbairn gave UCLA a 10-7 lead, Hogan led the Cardinal to two touchdowns in a six-minute stretch with perhaps the best passing display of his career. Hogan completed his first 12 passes, the longest stretch of consecutive completions to start a game in his career, and his only incompletion of the first half came on a deep pass to Michael Rector that was inches from being a touchdown.

Hogan hit Rector for a 22-yard touchdown to give Stanford a 14-10 lead, and then, in the final minute of the first half, Hogan found Cajuste in the corner of the endzone after evading pressure to put the Cardinal ahead 21-10.

Hogan finished the half 14-of-15 with 189 passing yards and two touchdowns. In a team effort to replace injured wide receiver Ty Montgomery, Hogan completed passes to nine different receivers in the first half, with no individual contributing more than three catches.

Hogan’s efforts were made possible by shutdown adjustments from the Cardinal defense. UCLA gained 64 yards on its first drive, but the Bruins only managed 56 yards on their next four drives combined.

Stanford led 21:40 to 8:20 in time of possession at the end of the first half, setting a new first-half season high. The Cardinal finished the game with 37:49 of possession, also a season high.

After the defense forced a UCLA punt on the first possession of the second half, Stanford drove 80 yards on seven plays without attempting a single pass to take a 28-10 lead. Wright scored on a second effort on third-and-goal at the 2-yard line for his sixth rushing touchdown over his last two games.

UCLA attempted a fake field goal near the end of the third quarter, but Jordan Richards intercepted holder Jerry Neuheisel’s pass in the endzone for a touchback.

Early in the fourth quarter, Hogan found Francis Owusu for 43 yards to set up a 34-yard field goal from Jordan Williamson, which gave Stanford a 31-10 lead. Owusu’s 43-yard catch was a new career long for the sophomore from Oxnard, Calif.

UCLA drove down inside the Cardinal 10 for a first-and-goal at the Stanford 7-yard line with just over seven minutes remaining in the game. Hundley left the game after an incompletion with an apparent hand injury, and backup quarterback Jerry Neuheisel missed long on a fade to turn the ball over on downs with 6:47 to play. The Stanford defense recorded one more turnover on downs to seal the 31-10 victory and a second-half shutout.

Hogan finished 16 of 19 for 234 yards and two touchdowns, good for a quarterback rating of 222.4. Hundley completed 17 of 32 passes for 146 yards and a touchdown.

The Cardinal now awaits word of its bowl destination. UCLA was eliminated from the Pac-12 Championship Game with the loss.