By Daniel Dullum
Saturday, November 11, 2023
Damien Marttinez put on a show for Oregon State Saturday, rushing for 146 yards and a career-best four touchdowns for the No. 12 Beavers, as they trounced Stanford 62-17 at Corvallis, Ore.
Martinez was the Pac-12 freshman offensive player of the year in 2022. He passed the 1,000-yard rushing mark for the season, doing most of his damage in the first half as Oregon State (8-2 overall, 5-2 Pac-12) kept its conference championship game hopes alive while winning its ninth straight home game.
The Cardinal (3-7 overall, 2-6 Pac-12) had troubler keeping up with Oregon State’s high-powered attack as they trailed 34-10 at halftime.
Martinez set the tone, but there were others who had a big day for the Beavers. Quarterback DJ Ulagalelei completed 12 of 19 passes for 240 yards and two touchdowns, and Andrew Chatfield Jr. had two sacks, a forced fumble and an interception.
Martinez scored his first touchdown with 9:52 left in the first quarter. Four minutes later, Martinez ran in from 59 yards out. With 623 seconds to go in the quarter, Ashton Daniels put the Cardinal on the board with a 7-yard touchdown run, cutting OSU’s lead to 14-7.
A minute and 26 seconds into the second quarter, Martinez’s 15-yard touchdown run put the Beavers up 21-7, and OSU added another score two minutes later on a 40-yard scoring pass from Ulagalelei to Jermaine Terry II.
Stanford’s Joshua Karty kicked a 28-ya5-yard run, rd field goal with 3:04 left In the second quarter, cutting the OSU lead to 28-10. But Martinez scored his fourth touchdown, a 5-yard run with 15 seconds left in the half, to give the Beavers a 24-point lead at the intermission.
Oregon State proceeded to outscore the Cardinal 28-7 in the second half. With 1:30 left in the third quarter, Stanford scored one last time when Daniels threw a 75-yard touchdown pass to Elic Ayomanor.
Daniels completed 10 of 16 passes for 200 yards, one touchdown, an interception and he was sacked three times. Daniels was also the Cardinal’s leading ground gainer with 37 yards on nine carries. Ayomanor caught three passes for 122 yards.
Oregon State racked up 29 first downs and 598 yards in total offense.
Stanford returns home for the 126th renewal of the Big Game against California next Saturday. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.
