Cardinal stranglehold on Axe continues with fifth straight Big Game win

Has this season been rough? Sure. Has it been frustrating? Absolutely.

But Saturday at California Memorial Stadium, there was nothing but elation and delirium in the air for Cardinal fans as Stanford (6-5, 4-4 Pac-12) picked apart Cal (5-6, 3-6) in a 38-17 show that ensured that none of the seniors on Stanford’s roster would leave the school ever having lost to Cal.

It also marked the fifth straight Big Game victory for Stanford, which has outscored Cal 201-75 through that stretch and also attained bowl eligibility for the sixth straight year.

“Our seniors did not want to be the group that lost the Axe,” said head coach David Shaw. “They never had an experience at Stanford where they didn’t have the Axe.”

Senior running back Remound Wright (center) surged into the end zone for four touchdowns, tying Toby Gerhart for a Stanford record in the Big Game. (JIM SHORIN/stanfordphoto.com)

Senior running back Remound Wright had a field day against a questionable Cal defense, powering into the end zone four times as the Cardinal’s clear primary back and narrowly missing out on becoming Stanford’s first 100-yard rusher of the season with a 23-carry, 92-yard performance. With the show, Wright tied the late Chuck Muncie of Cal and Toby Gerhart ’09 of Stanford for most rushing touchdowns in a Big Game.

Senior quarterback Kevin Hogan also added a rushing touchdown and had a very efficient 15-of-20 day as a passer for 214 yards. After the Cardinal offensive line struggled to open running lanes early, it eventually settled in against Cal’s defensive line and started to pave longer and longer gains on the Cardinal’s first-down runs, giving Stanford the rare luxury of being able to balance the run and the pass, something it had been unable to do effectively for most of the season.

It was a bad omen for Cal’s defense when it lost senior safety Michael Lowe on the game’s first play from scrimmage for a targeting hit on sophomore tight end Austin Hooper. Lowe, who is Cal’s active leader in tackles, was expected to be the cornerstone of a Golden Bears defense that has been among the conference’s worst in the last two seasons.

Even after senior wide receiver Ty Montgomery was lost early in the first quarter with a shoulder injury, Hogan was able to keep the passing game not just afloat, but thriving by finding his big possession receivers in senior wide receiver Devon Cajuste and Hooper for short gains to keep the chains moving throughout the afternoon. The duo combined for six catches for 98 yards and were the crucial element in setting up Wright’s four touchdowns.

The Cardinal showed no signs of the rust from their two-game losing streak on their first drive of the game, in which they drove 75 yards on six plays for an early touchdown, spurred by a 30-yard run from Wright. After tacking on another field goal, Cal fired back with a touchdown before Stanford scored the next 28 points of the game to cast off any doubts regarding the outcome of the game. Those 28 points were scored on classic dink-and-dunk Stanford drives like those of old, with no huge gains but the Cardinal just chipping away, taking what they could get before letting Wright tote the rock into the end zone.

On the other side of the ball, senior inside linebacker Blake Martinez had the game of his life, leading all defenders with 11 tackles while forcing a fumble and also adding two interceptions to boot, with the fumble and one of the picks coming deep in Stanford territory. While the Cal offensive line held firm at the start of the game, Stanford’s feisty front seven eventually began to break through and forced five defensive turnovers, something that had been missing all season, while pressuring and knocking down Cal quarterbacks Jared Goff and Luke Rubenzer.

“We’ve been talking all year about getting turnovers, and we came away with a bunch today,’’ Shaw said. “For the offense to make something out of those turnovers was big as well.”

Senior inside linebacker Blake Martinez (right) had a career day, forcing a fumble and intercepting Cal quarterback Jared Goff twice while leading all defenders with 11 tackles. (BOB DREBIN/stanfordphoto.com)

Goff had one of the worst performances of his career, passing 16-of-31 for 182 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. Cal head coach Sonny Dykes drew lots of criticism after the game for his use of Goff (or lack thereof), including some decisions to leave the backup Rubenzer in to take deep shots, which were likely relying on misdirection but did not fool Stanford’s defense and led Cal’s offense to stall more often than not.

Although Cal’s offensive line actually had a good day against the Stanford front in terms of opening running lanes, with Daniel Lasco rushing for 103 yards and averaging 5.7 yards per carry, the turnovers turned out to be too much and Cal found itself in a situation early on in which it needed to pass the ball often to get back into the game, giving Stanford’s front seven a feast.

This edition of the Big Game also saw one of the strangest sequences of the season: The referees at one point overturned three consecutive touchdowns for Cal upon further review, with the first two coming on goal-line rushes that were determined to not have broken the plane, while the final one came on a pass that was ultimately ruled incomplete. The raucous chorus of boos that rained down louder after every overturn sufficed to show the utter displeasure of the Cal home crowd at those rulings. To rub salt in the wound, Shaw even challenged the call on Cal’s ensuing onside kick. While the Golden Bears did recover, Shaw certainly didn’t endear himself to Cal fans with that challenge.

Oddities put aside, however, it marked a third consecutive dominating performance for Stanford in the Big Game, with Stanford fans able to serenade departing Cal fans with a rousing rendition of “Hey Hey Hey, Goodbye” in the fourth quarter for the second time in three years.

It was a bounceback effort that the team sorely needed before it heads down to Pasadena to face a surging Bruins squad, looking to play spoiler in a meeting that will have much higher implications for the Bruins than it will for the Cardinal.

When questions arose of a resurgent Cal squad potentially upsetting Stanford after the biggest win in history in the matchup last season, Stanford rose to the occasion and played up to its potential. Now, it’s just up to the Cardinal to keep it going and finish strong.

“It’s one of those rivalries you dream of as a kid to play in. Just to finish it off right is huge,” Martinez said.

“It means a lot to the school, the alumni and to us,’’ Hogan added. “It’s a great feeling to keep the Axe on the Farm.’’

Contact Do-Hyoung Park at dpark027 ‘at’ stanford.edu.