Nov. 13, 2004

Final Stats |  Quotes |  Notes

By JANIE McCAULEY
AP Sports Writer

STANFORD, Calif. (AP) - Derek Anderson passed for 334 yards and three touchdowns and Oregon State kept its bowl hopes alive, surviving a late scare to beat Stanford 24-19 on Saturday.

Anthony Wheat-Brown caught 11 passes for 117 yards for the Beavers (5-5, 4-3 Pac-10), who now must beat archrival Oregon in next week's Civil War game to be bowl eligible.

Anderson connected with Dwight Wright, Mike Hass and Joe Newton for first-half touchdowns, and the Beavers outgained Stanford 370-248 despite a dismal running game to defeat the Cardinal for the fourth straight time and fifth of six. Hass finished with eight catches for 110 yards.

The Beavers have won three in a row on the road for the first time since 2000.

Stanford (4-6, 2-5) lost its fourth straight, was eliminated from bowl contention, and is going to be hard pressed to improve on last season's 4-7 finish when the Cardinal wrap up their season against fifth-ranked California in the Big Game next week.

Redshirt freshman T.C. Ostrander made his first collegiate start at quarterback for Stanford in place of injured starter Trent Edwards, who has a sprained shoulder in his non-throwing arm.

Ostrander had a pretty 51-yard touchdown pass to Evan Moore negated because of holding just before halftime. After David Marrero's 62-yard punt return in the third, Ostrander threw a 15-yard scoring pass to Mark Bradford to make it 21-13.

Moore caught a 26-yard TD pass from Ostrander with 7:12 left, but the Cardinal failed on the two-point conversion that would have tied the game. Moore had the ball in his grasp but couldn't hold on.

Alexis Serna answered with a 37-yard field goal for the Beavers with 1:23 remaining, and Keith Ellison got a game-sealing interception moments later.

Ostrander was 17-for-45 with an interception and faced tough pressure all game.

Anderson threw four interceptions and was sacked four times - a far cry from his dominant day in the teams' 2003 meeting.

Oregon State won 43-3 last November in Corvallis in a record-setting game for the Beavers. It was Oregon State's highest score and widest margin of victory in the series. The Beavers amassed 663 yards, the school's third-highest single-game total.

Saturday's game was an afternoon of missed opportunities for Stanford.

Oshiomogho Atogwe picked off a pass by Anderson on the game's first play from scrimmage and returned it 28 yards, but Stanford failed to get into the end zone from inside the 10 and settled for Michael Sgroi's 24-yard field goal.

Sgroi, who earlier this season made 10 straight field goals, missed two other first-half field goals, wide to either side.

Atogwe had another interception in the third quarter and Stanford couldn't score, failing on fourth down in the red zone for the second straight series. Sgroi booted a career-long 50-yard field goal on the next possession.

But he also came up short on a 43-yarder in the fourth quarter.