By Jeremy Harness

 

STANFORD – Big Game? Big Rout is more like it.

 

It took about a half of a quarter to really set in, but Stanford fulfilled the prediction for this year’s rivalry game between the Bay Area-based Pac-12 schools, stampeding a hapless Cal squad, 63-13, at Stanford Stadium Saturday afternoon.

 

It marked the fourth straight Big Game win for the Cardinal, but another game that was played earlier in the day proved to be even bigger and also swung in Stanford’s favor. Stanford appeared to be headed for a potential Holiday Bowl date after its loss to USC last week, but Arizona upended No. 5 Oregon on Saturday, 42-16, to give the Cardinal the Pac-12 North championship.

 

Stanford has no more conference games left – the Cardinal host Notre Dame next week – while Oregon has one more, against Oregon State next Saturday. Even if Oregon wins, both schools would have two Pac-12 losses with Stanford owning the tiebreaker.

 

“Our guys showed a lot of maturity all week about how hard they worked, about preparing for this football game, about coming out here and keeping the axe,” Stanford coach David Shaw said. “This was about our conference, keeping the axe. Our guys did that.”

 

While the North division is ironed out, the Pac-12 South, however, is anything but.

 

At press time, the top two teams in the South – UCLA and Arizona State – were getting ready to lock horns at the Rose Bowl while USC, which has suddenly emerged as a challenger for the title and has broken into the Top 25, takes on Colorado.

 

As it stands, Arizona State sits atop the division, but all three schools have a realistic shot at the title. The Sun Devils and Bruins each control their own destiny; if Arizona State beats UCLA Saturday, it will wrap up the division since they own the tie-breaker over USC.

 

If Arizona State wins out, the title game will be played in Tempe, but if Arizona State beats UCLA but loses to Arizona in the finale, Stanford would host the conference championship.

 

However, if UCLA wins, the race becomes wide open.

 

USC can come away with the division title with wins over Colorado and UCLA in the regular season finale – coupled with Arizona State losing to Arizona – to set up a potential rematch with Stanford in the Coliseum.

 

If UCLA wins out, that would set up a repeat matchup of last year’s Pac-12 title game at Stanford Stadium Dec. 7.

 

However, Stanford would not have factored into the Pac-12 picture at all if it didn’t take care of its end of the deal against Cal. Ty Montgomery had a big hand in deciding that, as the Cardinal held a 42-13 at halftime.

 

The emerging star receiver-kick returner blistered Cal for five touchdowns in the first half, which tied him for the most scores in a game by a Stanford player with Darrin Nelson in 1981. He finished with 191 total yards while Stanford racked up 603 yards of total offense.

 

Montgomery’s sidekick, quarterback Kevin Hogan, threw for 329 yards and five touchdowns, connecting on 17 of his 26 passes.

 

Stanford got started with the offense right away. On the third play from scrimmage, Montgomery shot past the Cal defense for a 31-yard touchdown run to give Stanford a quick 7-0 lead.

 

The Golden Bears, however, didn’t seem to immediately get the memo that they were supposed to get blown out of Stanford Stadium. For their first possession, the Bears used their Air Raid offense to slice through the Stanford defense and get into the end zone to tie the game, a drive culminating in freshman Jared Goff’s 15-yard strike to Maurice Harris.

 

Stanford made sure they got it in short order. From there, the Cardinal stiffened up and stuck it to the overmatched Bears, with Montgomery doing most of the damage. Following an unsuccessful onside kick by Cal that gave the ball to Stanford at midfield, Hogan again connected with Montgomery for a 50-yard touchdown.

 

Montgomery scored three more times in the half, one of them coming on the second play of the second quarter, which saw him race away from the entire Cal defense for a 72-yard touchdown catch-and-run to give the Cardinal a 28-10 advantage.

 

“It’s awesome,” Hogan said. “Just getting him the ball, he makes me look good.”

 

His final score came with just five seconds left in the half, as he caught a 9-yard scoring pass from Hogan.

 

On the Cal side, Goff finished with 194 passing yards and a touchdown while completing 10 of his 19 throws. However, he left the game in the second quarter with an injury to his right throwing shoulder and did not return. His replacement, fellow freshman Zach Kline, completed eight of his 14 passes for 115 yards and was intercepted once.