Milburn Has 4 Scores to Lead Stanford, 40-10

PALO ALTO —  Glyn Milburn snapped out of a scoring slump with four touchdowns as Stanford routed Oregon State, 40-10, in a Pacific 10 game Saturday.

“I hadn’t scored this season, and was beginning to think it would never come,” Milburn said.

The Cardinal, 4-3 overall and 2-2 in the Pac-10, scored on its first three possessions, capitalizing on a pair of Oregon State fumbles, and went on to register its third consecutive victory.

Tommy Vardell scored Stanford’s first touchdown on a one-yard run, Milburn scored on a 25-yard pass from Steve Stenstrom and Milburn added a two-yard scoring run to make it 21-0 with 3:59 left in the first quarter.

The Beavers (0-7, 0-4) lost starting quarterback Mark Olford to a sprained left knee on the final play of their first possession. Freshman Sedrick Thomas fumbled on his first two plays, but later threw to Chad Paulson for a 38-yard touchdown pass play in the second quarter.

Oregon State lost seven of 10 fumbles while losing their 12th game in a row dating to last season, and 21st in 22 games.

The Beavers were 0 for 14 on third-down conversions.

Milburn, from Santa Monica High, ran for two touchdowns and caught two touchdown passes, one on a 92-yard play, as he amassed 319 all-purpose yards, his biggest output of the season.

The 92-yard pass play midway through the second quarter is the second-longest touchdown pass play in Stanford history, surpassed only by a 96-yarder from Jim Plunkett to Randy Vataha against Washington State in 1970.

“There is the opportunity to reach postseason for the first time in a long time,” Milburn said. “But we’ve got to keep that in the back of our minds. We have Oregon coming up, and that’s what we have to concentrate on.”

Stanford moved above .500 for the first time since 1986.