From the 'ashes' to a bowl — Oregon State gets its seventh win

Bernard's rushing leads Beavers to 30-7 victory at Stanford

By Kerry Eggers

LocalNewsDaily.com, Nov 18, 2006, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (6 Reader comments)

STANFORD, Calif. — Yvenson Bernard ran, Alexis Serna kicked and Oregon State's defense took care of business Saturday as the Beavers secured a third bowl appearance in four years with a 30-7 victory over Stanford.

Bernard carried 39 times for 168 yards, Serna kicked three short-range field goals and the OSU defense held the Cardinal to 210 yards total offense in a workmanlike performance.

Oregon State (7-4 overall, 5-3 in Pac-10 play) guaranteed itself a winning Pac-10 record for the third time since 1970 with its fifth win in the last six games. The Beavers put themselves in position to claim third place in the conference with a victory over Oregon next Saturday at Reser Stadium.

"I'm real excited about where we are," Oregon State coach Mike Riley said. "This team has risen from the ashes early in the season ... that's pretty neat. It's a credit to our coaches and players for staying the course.

"Now we can push for more. Now we can see what more we can accomplish."

Stanford (1-10, 1-7) was game but overmatched. The Cardinal had a terrible time moving the ball through the air. Quarterback T.C. Ostrander completed only 9 of 25 passes for 125 yards with one interception. The Beavers sacked him five times.

Oregon State had a huge advantage in first downs (24-12), total offense (385-210), rushing yardage (208-118), total plays (72-47) and time of possession (39:46 to 20:44). It was the first time this season the Beavers had more yards on the ground than through the air (177).

Part of that was by design. Stanford blitzes nearly every play in its 3-4 alignment. Riley gave the ball to Bernard more times than in any game except against Cal in 2005, when the 5-9, 205-pound tailback carried 42 times for 194 yards.

"I didn't want to get into a blitz pick-up game all day long," the OSU coach said. "The only way to do that is be balanced. We had a pretty balanced effort today, and Ev was terrific. It's as good as he has ever been."

Bernard smiled through a fat lip when asked about the extra work.

"I kind of knew my number would get called a lot," said Bernard, still not 100 percent healthy from the effects of a sprained ankle a month ago. "I felt good. Our offensive line did a great job today. It was so important for us to win. We thought this was bigger than any game we've had all year. We wanted to work hard, be mistake-free and play a good game."

Oregon State did that. After losing four fumbles in a 25-7 loss at UCLA last week, the Beavers had no turnovers against Stanford.

Quarterback Matt Moore, who had fumbled three times against the Bruins, was precise Saturday, completing 15 of 24 passes for 176 yards and two touchdowns. the 6-4, 195-pound senior — who tied for the national lead with 19 interceptions in 2005 — ran his string of consecutive passes without an interception to a nation-leading 117.

"That's amazing, from where we've come with Matt," Riley said. "That's great for him. I'm very excited for and proud of him. He has battled a lot during his career at Oregon State and has been a major factor in the resurgence of this team."

Aside from the opening moments — when Stanford used a short field to make a quick strike for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead — Oregon State's defense was dominant.

"The defense, those guys stepped it up," Bernard said. "They've done a great job this year, and they continued that."

Oregon State increased a 13-point halftime lead to 23-7 on an 18-yard field goal with 1:20 left in the third quarter, but that was disappointing for the Beavers. They had marched 59 yards to first-and-goal on the two, but stalled there. On fourth down from inside the one, Riley elected to go conservative and kicked the three-pointer.

Stanford then mounted its best drive of the day, moving from its own 23 to the Oregon State 14. The drive was keyed by a succesful gamble; on fourth-and-10 from their own 37, the Cardinal converted on a fake punt play, with Jay Ottovegio carrying 11 yards for a first down. But on second-and-six from the OSU 14, Coye Francies intercepted an Ostrander pass at the goal line and returned it 17 yards to end the scoring threat.

After an OSU punt, Oregon State locked up the victory on some defensive work deep in Stanford territory. Ostrander was hit by a blitzing Francies as he set to throw and his fumble was picked up by freshman middle linebacker Keatin Kristick at the Stanford 3-yard line. On fourth down, Moore sneaked in from the one and the Beavers' lead was 30-7 with 5:04 on the clock.

Oregon State spotted Stanford seven points, then rolled up 20 in a row to go into halftime ahead 20-7. The Beavers dominated the statistical board in the half, running up a huge edge in first downs (18-4), total offense (274-103), passing yardage (150-50), rushing yardage (124-53) total plays (44-17) and time of possession (20:53 to 9:07).

Bernard was the workhorse for Oregon State, piling up 99 yards on 20 carries in the half. Moore completed 12 of 19 passes for 150 yards and a pair of scores with no interceptions.

Stanford stunned Oregon State with the quick touchdown after stopping the Beavers on their opening possession and, after a short Kyle Loomis punt, taking the ball on the OSU 45. On second-and-one from the Beavers' 36, Anthony Kimble burst through the middle, broke a tackle and ran untouched the rest of the way for a 36-yard TD and a 7-0 lead with 11:39 left in the first quarter.

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