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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) -- Stanford waited until the last snap of
the last game of the season to run this particular play.
The timing was perfect.
Fullback Casey Moore caught a 25-yard touchdown pass on
Stanford's second play in overtime as the Cardinal beat California
36-30 on Saturday in the 103rd Big Game.
Randy Fasani threw three TD passes as Stanford (5-6, 4-4 Pac-10)
beat its most familiar foe for the sixth straight time, matching
the longest winning streak in the rivalry's history.
"I guess we picked the right time to throw to the fullback,"
said a grinning Moore, who made his eighth catch of the year.
"This is not exactly the way I thought it would end."
The final play, which Stanford hadn't called since last season,
worked to perfection. Fasani found Moore wide open across the
middle, and he scored without a defender in sight.
The Big Game is best known for the 1982 five-lateral kickoff
return that gave Cal a jaw-dropping victory. Moore's catch wasn't
as dramatic, but Moore and Fasani both admitted few
scenarios were less likely than this.
"We've been preparing all this year for the right place and the
right time to run this play," said Stanford coach Tyrone
Willingham, who hasn't lost in six Big Games. "It's not a bad idea
every once in a while to go in the stadium, shut the doors and work
on something like that."
Stanford trumped the Golden Bears yet again when Moore, who
hadn't caught a pass all day, became the Cardinal's primary option
on second down in overtime. The play called for Moore to fake a run
into the middle of the line, then pop out in the secondary.
"It felt like it was sitting up there all day," Moore said.
"I was just trying to look it into my hands, because I knew I was
all alone out there."
Moore, who scored twice in last year's meeting between the
bitter rivals, scored two more times this year. The Cardinal
celebrated in the end zone, then ran to the other end of Memorial
Stadium and saluted their fans.
"This is one of the best feelings I've ever had," senior
linebacker Riall Johnson said. "This is closure on my career. A
lot of things didn't go right this season, but this makes up for
all of it. It makes me glad I went to Stanford."
In last year's Big Game, Stanford clinched its first undisputed
Pac-10 title with a 31-13 win. With both teams assured of losing
seasons in 2000, nothing was at stake this year but pride and
bragging rights.
Cal fell behind 30-23 with 4:17 left when Stanford's Luke Powell
caught a short pass and raced 75 yards for a score. The Bears threw
an interception but quickly got the ball back, and Geoff McArthur's
38-yard fingertip catch set up Joe Igber's 9-yard scoring run with
a minute to play.
"I think it was a draw," said Igber, who was among several Cal
players shedding tears in the locker room. "I was just trying to
do whatever I could for us to score."
The Stanford defense stymied Cal (3-8, 2-6) on its overtime
possession, and Mark-Christian Jensen missed a 42-yard field goal.
"That put us in a bind," said Cal coach Tom Holmoe, who was
given a vote of confidence by athletic director John Kasser after
the game. "We had to go into a real risky defense."
With its high-powered offense struggling all afternoon, Stanford
stayed in the game by blocking two punts and intercepting Cal
quarterback Kyle Boller four times. Fasani, who was 12-of-23 for
242 yards, threw two TD passes in the fourth quarter.
Stanford senior defensive lineman Willie Howard got his first
career interception and recovered a fumble to hurt the Golden
Bears, who outplayed the Cardinal much of the day but still
couldn't put their hands on the Axe.
"I'll always be able to say I never lost to Cal," said Howard,
who wore his trademarks chains around his neck after the final
outing of Stanford's Trench Dogs defensive line.
The schools have the West Coast's oldest football rivalry, and
the Cardinal's six straight wins tied the six victories recorded by
Stanford in the 1960s. Stanford has a 53-39-11 record in the
series, which began in 1892 and is tied for 10th longest in the
nation.
Stanford's offense, ranked among the Pac-10's best all season,
struggled all day against a fired-up Cal defense. But the Cardinal
led 16-7 at halftime thanks to two blocked punts -- one which was
returned 20 yards for a touchdown by Colin Branch -- and three
interceptions, two by Stanford backup cornerback Brian Taylor.
In the third quarter, Cal put together consecutive scoring
drives ending in a 3-yard TD reception by Joseph Echema and a
27-yard broken-field TD run by Igber.
That finally awakened the Cardinal, who made an 80-yard drive
and scored on a 1-yard pass on fourth down to DeRonnie Pitts, who
became the fifth Pac-10 player to record more than 3,000 career
yards receiving.
Cal kicked a 27-yard field goal to tie it before Powell caught a
short pass, dodged two tacklers at the Stanford sideline and ran 75
yards for a score. Cal's first comeback attempt ended with Tank
Williams' interception, but Stanford couldn't move the ball and had
to punt, setting up Cal's tying drive.
Fans from both schools engaged in the usual pregame hostilities.
The Stanford band, which was banned from Memorial Stadium earlier
this decade, performed a pregame routine in which it spelled out
"1450" on the field, apparently mocking the Cal student body's
lower average SAT scores.
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ALSO SEE
College Football Scoreboard
Stanford Clubhouse
California Clubhouse
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