by Jerry Feitelberg

Stanford rebounded with a win over the visiting West Point Black Knights win a 35-0 win at Stanford Stadium Saturday. Stanford’s defense was outstanding recording the second shutout of the season and has allowed just 13 points in the three games played so far this season. Unfortunately,the 13 points were scored by USC last week as they upset Stanford. Stanford’s offense had a tough time getting into the end zone against USC but today was a different story as the Cardinal scored five touchdowns in the win. Quarterback Kevin Hogan threw for four scores and Ty Montgomery ran one in for a touchdown.

The game summary follows below.

Stanford won the toss and elected to receive. The drive started on the Cardinal 25 yard line. Kevin Hogan drove the Cardinal 75 yards in nine plays for the score. The drive was a nice mix of runs and passes. Hogan completed a 9 yard pass to Austin Hooper, Kelsey Young had a 16 yard run and a key 10 yard grab byEric Cotton got the ball to the Army 23rd yard line. On the next play Hogan found Devon Cajuste all alone in the end zone for the score. The extra point was good and Stanford has a 7-0 led with 10:44 left in the quarter. From that point until just 1:30 left to play in the half it became a defensive struggle. Stanford moved the ball a lot better the Army but Army’s defense came up big and stopped Stanford. Stanford’s defense was strong as the allowed Army just 58 total yards in the half. The key play in the second quarter came late in the half when Army fumbled on their own fifteen yard line. The fumble was recovered by Kevin Anderson. On the first play, Hogan handed off to Ty Montgomery who ran it to the Army 4 yard line. Hogan ran it to the 2. Hogan’s pass to Cajuste was incomplete but they connected on the next play for the touchdown. Stanford ahead 14-0 at the half.

Stanford kicked off to Army to start the second half. The Cadets controlled the ball for almost nine minutes but had to punt. Stanford got the ball on the their own 2 yard line and then went 98 yards in nine plays for the their third touchdown of the game. Stanford ran the ball down to the Army ten yard line. Barry Sanders had three carries for 61 yards on the drive. Stanford ran the ball into the end zone but the play was nullified by a holding penalty. Hogan was sacked for a two yard loss but on the next play Kevin Hogan found Devon Cajuste in the end zone again for the touchdown. Cardinal has a 21-0 lead With 2:51 left in the third quarter.

In the fourth quarter the Cardinal went 35 yards in 8 plays to take a 28 -0 lead. Army tried a fake punt

that was broken up by Patrick Skov at Army’s 35 yard line. Stanford went for the jugular and took it in for the score. The touchdown was scored by Ty Montgomery from the wildcat formation. 11:35 left to go in the game. Stanford scored again following an interception by linebacker A.J.Tarpley on Stanford’s 27 yard line. The Cardinal went 73 yards in 6 plays with the key play being a 32 yard touchdown pass from Kevin Hogan to Ty Montgomery for the score. 35-0 with 6:09 left. Time for Coach David Shaw to play the backups. The Army drove to the Stanford 2 yard line but the Stanford defense rose up and stopped the Cadets on fourth and goal. Final score 35-0 in favor of Stanford.

Game notes:

Through three games in 2014, Stanford’s tight ends have combined for 16 receptions. The same position group combined for 10 receptions for the entire 2013 season.

Stanford posted its second shutout of 2014. It is the 41st time in school history that the Cardinal has shut out multiple opponents, but just the second time since 1973.

Stanford has held opponents scoreless in the second quarter in all three games this year.

Stanford held Army to 3.5 yards/carry on Saturday. In the 2013 matchup between one of the nation’s top rushing defensive units against one of the nation’s best ground games, Stanford allowed 284 rushing yards on 61 carries (4.65 yards/carry). Army averaged nearly 370 yards per game (5.5 yards/carry) in 2012, and 312 yards (5.4 yards/carry) in 2013. Army rushed for 341 yards in its 2014 opener against Buffalo.Stanford is 8-0 following a loss under head coach David Shaw. The Cardinal has not lost consecutive games since midway through the 2009 season.

The Cardinal is 39-4 (.907) at Stanford Stadium since the final home game of 2007.

·Over the past four seasons, Stanford owns a 28-2 record at Stanford Stadium which includes an 11-2 clip against top 25 opponents.

Stanford is 12-0 in its last 12 home games against non-conference opponents. The last such loss came against Notre Dame in 2007.

Coach Shaw had this to say after the game today

COACH SHAW: I thought it was a good effort by our players.First and foremost, Lance Anderson did a phenomenal job on the defensive side.That is a tough thing in one week, which is really three days of practice.In three days of practice to get ready for this triple option, I thought it was phenomenal.

Give a lot of credit to Lance.Give a lot of credit to our older guys on defense. Some new starters, but a lot of these guys played a lot of football.They were at Army last year, and though some of this is a little different because it’s a new coaching staff, but the guys played well.They played the scheme extremely well. I thought Aziz Shittu played well, Blake Martinez played extremely well. Henry Anderson making tackles for loss and getting in there. And David Parry, because it starts up front defending the option, those guys played so well.

Secondary was very disappointing.Saw a bunch of passes by this group last week so we knew the big play was a possibility.And second, Duane Akina got the secondary ready.When they dropped back to throw it, everybody was covering deep.They hit some balls underneath, and that’s fine for us.Can’t say enough about what the defense did today, it was outstanding.

Offensively, we started fast.Scripted plays of the first drive was executed perfectly.We thought it was just a great drive.We had a lull in the middle there.Some things that weren’t quite clean.A lot of things we addressed and cleaned up again, and then started at the second quarter and got kind of back into it. Got in the third quarter and got back to the running game.

I thought Kelsey ran the ball well I thought Barry Sanders had a big game, did some nice things for us And Devon Cajuste, is just a tough guy to guard.He’s just under 6’4", and 227 pounds and he can run and jump.It’s such a great compliment to what that guy can do.Mike Rector can be explosive.We’ll continue to work on our tight ends and get them involved, but we’re trying to build a complete offense here.

Stanford has a bye next week then travels to Seattle to meet the Washington Huskies on September 27th.