• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Carpenter shines as Arizona State routs Stanford

Sep 7, 2008 - 6:55 AM TEMPE, Arizona (Ticker) -- Rudy Carpenter passed for 343 yards and three touchdowns as Arizona State cruised to a 41-17 victory over Stanford on Saturday in a Pac-10 battle.

Dimitri Nance and Keegan Herring each rushed for a score for the Sun Devils (2-0, 1-0 Pac-10), who racked up 470 yards of total offense and held the Cardinals (1-1, 1-1) to 234.

Toby Gerhart rushed for a pair of TDs for Stanford, which was intercepted three times.

Carpenter, who completed 27-of-36 passes with one interception, tossed touchdowns of 11, 45 and 2 yards to lead Arizona State.

"He's throwing it [with] experience, his receivers are playing very well," Sun Devils coach Dennis Erickson said of Carpenter. "I think where we're at right now is you have to make a decision on what you want to do against this. He's just throwing it really well, he had one bad throw: the pick. But other than that I thought he played very well."

After the Sun Devils got off to a sluggish start, Carpenter found Michael Jones with an 11-yard strike to give Arizona State a 13-7 lead with 9:02 left in the second quarter.

"I am feeling comfortable and obviously our passing game is one of our strengths," Carpenter said. "I don't want to sound negative but, it was a good win, I was a little disappointed in how I played.

"I called a couple plays wrong and threw an interception, and that was a terrible interception. It was good to put those points up but we have to get rid of those turnovers."

The senior signal caller then connected with Kerry Taylor on a 45-yard score with 29 ticks left in the half. The Sun Devils took a 20-10 advantage into the break.

"Rudy was very impressive. I gained a lot of respect for him tonight," Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh said. "He took some hits, he was under pressure a lot, but he made some good throws and was very accurate."

Nance and Gerhart exchanged short rushing touchdowns in the third quarter before Arizona State took complete control in the final period.

Carpenter delivered a two-yard TD to Dan Knapp early in the frame and Herring rushed for a 2-yard score with 7:15 remaining to provide the final margin.

"I thought we were pretty balanced offensively," Erickson said. "I thought we ran the football with quite a bit of success."

Tavita Pritchard, the first of three quarterbacks used by the Cardinals, passed for 104 yards with two interceptions.

"We turned the ball over too many times, leading to two easy touchdowns, specifically when Rudy found an open receiver before the half for an easy touchdown," Harbaugh said. "That right there was the difference between a close game and not a close game."