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Stanford rolls through Washington State

Sep 29, 2013 - 6:55 AM Seattle, WA (Sports Network) - Devon Cajuste hauled in two of Kevin Hogan's three touchdown passes, and a pair of interception returns helped punctuate a 55-17 triumph for fifth-ranked Stanford over Washington State on Saturday at CenturyLink Field.

Hogan amassed a career-high 286 yards through the air, with his only blemish an interception on a day in which he completed 16 of his 25 passes. Cajuste highlighted a four-catch, 115-yard performance with 57 and 33-yard scores for Stanford (4-0, 2-0 Pac-12), which has won six straight over the Cougars.

"I thought we played well," said Stanford coach David Shaw. "We played a good 60 minutes, we didn't play perfectly but guys played well. They played hard and didn't worry about the score."

Third-quarter interception returns from Jordan Richards and Trent Murphy helped break the game open, as the Cardinal defense held Washington State (3-2, 1-1) to just three points over the first three quarters.

Cougars signal caller Connor Halliday threw for 183 yards and an interception on 24-of-36 efficiency. He was forced to leave the game shortly after taking a hard shot on his interception in the third.

Gabe Marks and Rickey Galvin had 47 and 8-yard touchdown receptions, respectively, late in the fourth quarter with the outcome already decided.

Cajuste's long touchdown receptions came on back-to-back drives to open a 17-3 lead for Stanford, which scored on its first three possessions of the game and maintained that margin by halftime.

It was on its way to a fourth straight score, but Hogan had a pass picked off in the back corner of the end zone by Deone Buchanon, stalling a 17-play drive that chewed up over nine minutes of second quarter clock.

Andrew Furney had Washington State's only points of the half with his 36-yard field goal on the team's opening drive. He had a chance to cut into Stanford's lead after the turnover, but had a 45-yard attempt sail wide left.

The Cardinal defense made a fourth down stop on the Cougars' opening set of the second half, then forced Halliday into a turnover on their ensuing drive.

Murphy crushed Halliday into the ground as he threw a pass up and into the hands of Richards, who took it 30 yards the other way for a score. Halliday attempted to stay in the game on the Cougars' next drive, but exited after clutching his back on a screen pass.

Stanford put Washington State out of its misery soon after. Hogan launched a 45-yard TD pass to Michael Rector, then Murphy picked off backup quarterback Austin Apodaca for a 30-yard score to move Stanford's advantage to 38-3.

Jordan Williamson, whose 28-yard kick gave Stanford its first points of the game, pushed his team's lead to 41-3 with a 27-yard boot early in the fourth.

Remound Wright and Barry Sanders added 53 and 22-yard rushing scores, respectively, later in the frame to cap the scoring for the Cardinal. For Sanders, the son of the Hall of Fame running back, it was the first TD of his career.

Game Notes

Stanford is 9-0 with Hogan as the starter ... The Cardinal have recorded at least one takeaway in a nation-best 28 straight games ... Halliday entered the contest with nine touchdowns over his previous two games ... Washington State has lost eight games in a row to top-five opponents ... The Cougars were aiming for their first 4-1 start since 2003.