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Late touchdown lifts Stanford to upset of No. 2 USC

Oct 7, 2007 - 5:56 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- Before the season started, Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh said Southern California might be the best team in the history of college football. On Saturday night, Harbaugh's team proved otherwise.

Tavita Pritchard threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Mark Bradford with 48 seconds remaining as Stanford shocked Pac-10 Conference rival and second-ranked USC with a 24-23 victory at the Los Angeles Coliseum.

The win ended USC's 35-game home winning streak and gave the Cardinal their first win in six meetings over the Trojans.

"It stinks to give it up (the streak), especially playing the way we did tonight," USC coach Pete Carroll said. "It's just a crusher. They did a heck of a job and we had a ton of mistakes. I never thought we would lose tonight, even after they scored. We thought we'd go down the field and kick a field goal."

Stanford (2-3, 1-3 Pac-10), which was the last team to beat USC here back in 2001, cut the Trojans' lead to 23-17 with over five minutes to play.

After the Cardinal intercepted John David Booty to take the ball at the USC 44, Stanford moved down the field inside the Trojans' 10-yard line with over one minute to play.

On 4th-and-goal from the USC 10, Pritchard lobbed a pass into the left corner of the end zone that Bradford was able to come down with, just keeping his feet in bounds.

"Mark (Bradford) is a great athlete and receiver," Pritchard said. "I gave him a chance to make a play on the ball and he did that. I saw him jump up and grab it and I sprinted to him to try to jump on him."

USC (4-1, 2-1), which lost the No. 1 spot in the media poll after last week's 27-24 win at Washington, outgained Stanford, 459-235, but also committed five turnovers.

Booty threw for 364 yards and two touchdowns but was intercepted a career-high four times.

"There were sometimes where balls were just bad; they were straight up just bad balls," Booty said. "There were other times where there was some pressure. There were some times when we were trying to force things there at the end (where) we had to get some points on the board.

"So all in all, I'm frustrated but we've got to come back Monday and watch the film and do what we can and learn from that and continue to move on."

Carroll revealed after the game that his quarterback was far from completely healthy.

"He cracked the middle finger on his throwing hand," Carroll said. "He cracked it in the first half. He fought through it and was doing alright. We could have made a change, but we went with our guy."

Pritchard, who was making his first start at quarterback in place of the injured T.C. Ostrander, threw for just 149 yards and completed 11-of-30 passes.

"He (Pritchard) had a gleam in his eye," Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh said. "From Sunday on, he was ready to play and took it on his head and played great. He was into it from the first snap. He played his heart out - the entire team did. They played like their lives depended on it. They played smart, sound and just wanted it."

Trailing, 9-0, Stanford cut the deficit to just two points early in the third quarter when cornerback Austin Yancy intercepted Booty and returned it 31 yards for a touchdown.

USC added to its lead late in the third quarter when Booty hit tight end Fred Davis for a 63-yard touchdown, giving the Trojans a 16-7 cushion.

After the Cardinal again cut the deficit to two, Booty hit Ronald Johnson for a 47-yard score to give USC a 23-14 lead with 11:04 left in the game.