Arizona State Routs Stanford, 41-9

Jake Plummer found himself in an unfamiliar position in the fourth quarter Saturday, watching from the sidelines as his Arizona State teammates wrapped up an easy Pacific 10 Conference victory over Stanford.

Plummer, who had to rally the fourth-ranked Sun Devils to dramatic victories the previous two weeks, relaxed in the closing minutes as Arizona State, 8-0 overall and 5-0 in the Pac-10, stayed undefeated by strolling to a 41-9 victory over the Cardinal before only 32,550 at Palo Alto.

It was the smallest crowd this season at 85,000-seat Stanford Stadium.

Plummer threw for two touchdowns and ran for one as the Sun Devils, who scored 21 first-quarter points, took control early.

“It was not exciting in the fourth quarter, but at least we had gotten things under control by then,” Plummer said.

Plummer, backed by winds gusting up to 40 mph, threw for 151 yards in the first quarter--including scoring passes of 31 yards to J.R. Redmond and 17 yards to Lenzie Jackson. Terry Battle added a five-yard touchdown run.

Jeff Paulk ran one yard for a touchdown, Plummer scored on a four-yard scramble and Robert Nycz kicked a 27-yard field goal in the third quarter for Arizona State. Nycz added a 25-yard field goal in the fourth period.

Greg Clark caught a 45-yard scoring pass from Todd Husak, who relieved injured starter Chad Hutchinson late in the first quarter, and Kevin Miller had a 27-yard field goal for Stanford (2-5, 1-3).

Plummer, who has 28 touchdown passes in his last 13 games, completed 21 of 34 passes for 316 yards with an interception as he moved into ninth place on the Pac-10 career passing list with 8,095 yards.

Hutchinson left the game because of a sprained right thumb after completing three of seven passes for 17 yards, with an interception and a fumble. Husak was 17 for 34 for 173 yards, with two interceptions.

Arizona 33, Oregon State 7--Gary Taylor rushed for two touchdowns and Charles Myles added a 28-yard scoring run with 8:34 to play as the Wildcats won at Tucson.

Arizona (4-3, 2-2) kept the ball on the ground and wound up with 491 yards total offense, 340 of it rushing, in handing Oregon State (1-6, 1-4) its 11th consecutive road loss since October 1994.