Photo credit: @StanfordFball

By: Ana Kieu

PALO ALTO, Calif. — The Stanford Cardinal electrified Stanford Stadium on Saturday night, which was also Senior Night for the soon-to-be Stanford alumni, with a 48-17 win over the Oregon State Beavers. It was a fun night for those who were rooting for the Cardinal.

Here are my three takeaways from Stanford’s 48-17 over Oregon State.

Stanford’s apparent luck on Senior Night
It’s plain and simple, Stanford’s apparent luck on Senior Night has shined bright like a diamond for quite a while. With the win, Stanford improved to 7-1 under head coach David Shaw on Senior Nights. That statistic includes four wins in a row for the Cardinal.

Shaw told the media: “Proud of the way our football team came out. We made some changes to our routine. Put some pressure on some guys to step up as leaders, made sure we started the games better the rest of the year. And our guys came out tonight with a fire and energy.”

Shaw added: “So excited about our seniors. A lot of our seniors made big plays tonight, contributed a lot tonight. Both up front and on the offensive and defensive lines–Bryce Love, Cameron Scarlett, Jake Bailey. Guys came in and just made some great plays for us. Trenton Irwin made some nice catches.”

The new Cardinal in town
Look out, John Elway and Steve Stentstrom! There’s a new Cardinal in town–K.J. Costello!

On Saturday, Costello became the third Cardinal with six 300-yard passing games in a season, joining the likes of Elway (six in 1982) and Stentstrom (eight in 1993), respectively. Costello also moved into ninth place in Stanford history with 37 career touchdown passes, moving past Trent Edwards (36 from 2003-06).

When asked about Costello’s performance in Saturday’s game, Colby Parkinson said: “K.J. is awesome. He’s going to put the ball where it needs to be, going to give you a shot to go up and get it. Like I said earlier, this is stuff we’ve been working on for a year and a half now. It’s not something that just happened tonight. It’s not something that is spur of the moment. This is what we do every day in practice.”

37 years
It took only 37 years (just kidding, I’m only 25!) for the Cardinal to score 48 points in a game in which the Beavers were their opponent.

The Cardinal’s 48 points versus the Beavers on Saturday were the most by a Cardinal squad since their 63-9 blowout of the Beavers back in 1981. So yeah, it wasn’t only a high scoring game, it was also a statistic breaker.

Congratulations to the Cardinal on their huge victory over the Beavers!