Stanford and Gerhart Take Down #8 Oregon

Toby Gerhart runs over an Oregon defender. Both Stanford players and fans celebrate after the upset. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Go here to watch highlights of the Stanford victory.

Nov. 7, 2009

The Stanford Cardinal pulled of a huge upset Saturday with a 51-42 win over the #8 ranked Oregon Ducks. Toby Gerhart led a rushing attack that overpowered the Ducks defense and set the single game Stanford rushing record with 223 yards and 3 touchdowns. The win pushed Stanford to 6-3 and more importantly made them bowl eligible for the first time in 8 years.

The victory snapped a 7 game losing streak versus Oregon and gave coach Jim Harbaugh and the football program a big boost. This is the program's biggest win since the upset over USC two years ago.

Stanford's less athletic defense managed to slow down the high powered Oregon offense led by the dynamic rushing duo of quarterback Jeremiah Masoli and LaMichael James just enough for the victory.

In the first quarter freshman running back LaMichael James scampered for a 60 yard touchdown run that cut Stanford's lead to 10-7. James rushed for 125 yards and has filled in nicely for the Ducks, who lost last year's star running back LeGarrette Blount to suspension after he punched a Boise St. player following a loss in the first game of the season.

The freshman RB James had rushed for 918 yards and had a career high with 183 against USC last week in a 47-20 drubbing of the Trojans. Oregon hasn't missed a beat with Blount out of the line-up, and despite rumors of his return this week coach Chip Kelly did not reinstate him. Last year Blount ran for 1038 yards and 17 TDs.

Toby Gerhart answered back with the first of his 3 touchdowns with a 4-yard run to improve Stanford's lead to 17-7. With such a great performance in a big game Gerhart puts himself right back into the Heisman race.

After another Stanford score Jeremiah Masoli threw a 29-yard touchdown to keep Oregon within 10. Masoli finished the day 21-37 with 335 yards passing and 4 total touchdowns (1 rushing).

But, in the 3rd quarter Stanford came out firing and Andrew Luck hit receiver Chris Owusu in the end zone for a 31 yard TD to put Stanford up 38-21. Luck had 2 touchdowns on 251 yards passing and Owusu had 3 more receptions for 111 yards.

Toby Gerhart and Chris Owusu are third in the Pac-10 in combined yards/game, trailing brothers Jacquizz and James Rodgers of Oregon State.

Late in the 3rd quarter Toby plowed into the end zone from 17 yards out to give the Cardinal a 45-28 lead and ultimately proved to be the game's winning points.

Oregon scored 2 late touchdowns to close the gap to 6 points, but Stanford recovered an onside kick with 2:38 left in the game and Nate Whitacker nailed a 47 yard field goal to ensure that the Ducks could not tie the game with a TD and a 2-point conversion.

Both teams rushed for over 200 yards and combined for over 500 yards of total offense.

Led by the punishing ground attack of Toby Gerhart, Stanford dominated time of possession and held the ball for 37:43.

As good as tailback LaMichael James has been this year, he dropped 2 potential touchdown passes in the 4th quarter. After the second drop, he slid and appeared to injure his shoulder on the play, but it seemed more like an injury to his pride.

The Stanford Cardinal play at USC next Saturday, November 14 at 12:30 pm.

Citations:

http://espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=293110024

http://espn.go.com/ncf/preview?gameId=293110024

Yankees win 27th World Series with 7-3 Victory

(Clockwise from top left): Hideki Matsui watches his two run home run in the 2nd inning, the Yankees celebrating their record 27th championship and Andy Pettitte hurling a pitch in his winning effort. Photos courtesy (Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images) and http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/0911/mlb.world.series.game6/content.1.html

11/4/09

The New York Yankees won their 27th World Series championship Wednesday night with a 7-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies. The Yankees were led by Series MVP Hideki Matsui who finished the night 3-4 with 6 RBI, tying the single game WS record, on a home run, double and single. The Yankees have won more championships than any other American sports franchise and their first title in nearly a decade.

The "core 4" of the Yankees, Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera, who all debuted in the 1995 season and have been together now for 5 championships, got their first ring since the 2000 season. The Yankees had won 3 championships in a row from '98-00 and 4 in the last 5 years before their 9-year "drought."

Jeter had 3 hits and 2 runs, Posada caught all 9 innings, Pettitte set a new record by being the first pitcher to start and win all 3 clinching games in the playoffs and Mo finished the game.

This championship justified nearly half a billion dollars ($462 million) in the off-season free agent acquisitions of CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and A.J. Burnett and the extravagant $1.5 billion Yankee stadium got a 'ship in just its first year, too. CC had a great post season and shook off some past struggles in October. He had 3 wins and a 1.98 ERA in 5 starts and frequently pitched on short rest.

Matsui led off the scoring with a 2-run homer in the second, and after a sac fly by Jimmy Rollins, "Godzilla" hit a 2-run single off of Pedro in the 5th inning to make the game 4-1 in favor of the Yanks. 2 innings later Matsui finished the Yankees scoring with a deep double off the wall in right center that scored 2 more runs and gave the Yankees their 7th run. He, Johnny Damon and Jorge Posada all are free agents after this season and the speculation was that the team would retain Posada and Damon and not re-sign Matsui, but after such a big performance it will be hard for the team to part ways with the Japanese slugger.

Alex Rodriguez, a man known for his spectacular regular season stats and choke jobs in the playoffs contributed with a great postseason this year. Despite leaked reports about how he took steroids with the Texas Rangers from 2001-3 and hip surgery that kept A-Rod on the bench until May. A new, wider batting stance and willingness to be just another guy and not so intensely focused on being the best player helped A-Rod to hit .365 with 6 HRs, including a couple of crucial game tying or go-ahead home runs.

On Phillies notes, at least Chase Utley tied Reggie Jackson, Mr. October himself, with a record 5 home runs in a single series. He owned the formidable lefty CC Sabathia and hit 3 jacks off of him.

The Phillies came within 2 games of being the last NL team to win back to back World Series titles since the Big Red Machine Cincinnati Reds did it back in 1975 and '76.

Ryan Howard set a new postseason record with 13 Ks in a World Series, but did hit a 2 run homer in the 6th inning. He struggled in the Series against New York's heavily left-handed starters and hit .207 against lefties this year.