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Olson throws five TDs as UCLA trounces Stanford

Sep 2, 2007 - 3:17 AM PALO ALTO, California (Ticker) -- Ben Olson did not take long to make up for lost time.

Olson threw a career-high five touchdown passes Saturday to pace 14th-ranked UCLA to a 45-17 Pac-10 Conference victory over Stanford.

It was Olson's first game since suffering a season-ending knee injury against Arizona last October. The redshirt sophomore completed 16-of-29 attempts for 286 yards, leading the Bruins (1-0, 1-0 Pac-10) to their fourth straight win over the Cardinal (0-1, 0-1).

"(Olson) wasn't a pinpoint thrower on the shorter stuff," Bruins coach Karl Dorrell said. "But I like how he threw the deep stuff."

Kahlil Bell also enjoyed a milestone day for the UCLA, rushing for a career-high 196 yards on just 19 carries. The junior tailback offset a poor performance by starter Chris Markey, who gained just 71 yards on 20 carries.

"I think we did a good job," Bell said. "We didn't play to our potential. I think the first half we didn't execute."

"It was good to see Kahlil have the kind of game he had," Dorrell added. "We have a lot of potential to do great things, and this was a great first game for him (Bell) and all of us."

Olson, Bell and company ruined the Stanford coaching debut for Jim Harbaugh, who had been at the University of San Diego.

"Overall this is very disappointing to us," Harbaugh said. "I saw a lot of positives things out there on the field, and I don't think that the score was very indicative of how we played. We have a football team here now."

The Cardinal drew within 14-7 on T.C. Ostrander's 10-yard TD pass to Jim Dray with 48 seconds left in the first half, but the Bruins methodically pulled away after the break to improve to 58-26-5 all-time in season openers.

"I really liked how when things weren't running well, we came back," Olson said. "It was the first game, and we've got to get better and learn from it. We did what we were trying to do, and now we've got to go out and get better."

UCLA extended its lead to 21-7 with 8:44 left in the third quarter when Olson hooked up with Dominique Johnson for a four-yard TD.

Stanford clawed to within 21-10 on Derrick Belch's 37-yard field goal with 5:46 left in the third, but Olson found Joe Cowan for a 77-yard score just 57 seconds later to make it 28-10.

It was the fourth TD pass of the day for Olson, who capped his outstanding performance with a 15-yard TD to Brandon Beazell in the fourth quarter.

"It was a good first game," Dorrell said. "It was a good statement at the beginning of the year. Defensively we played pretty well. I liked how we stopped the running game.

"We were a bit conservative in the first half, then we decided to let our playmakers make plays."

Olson gave the Bruins the lead for good 10 1/2 minutes into the contest with his first TD - a 19-yard strike to Cowan to make it 7-0. UCLA doubled the advantage 38 seconds into the second quarter when Olson found Gavin Ketchum for a six-yard TD.

Ostrander completed 26-of-58 passes for 337 yards and two scores for the Cardinal (0-1), who fell to 31-44-3 all-time vs. the Bruins.

"We made a lot of mistakes out there and weren't always on the same page," Ostrander said. "But a lot of things were under our control, and with two weeks before the next game, we should be ready to go."