Oregon State waltzes past Stanford

STANFORD, Calif. – This time, Oregon State didn’t let Stanford put a damper on its postseason hopes.

Matt Moore threw for 176 yards and two touchdowns and ran for a 1-yard score to make the Beavers bowl eligible with a 30-7 victory Saturday, spoiling the Cardinal’s final shot at winning a game in its fancy renovated stadium.

Yvenson Bernard carried 36 times for 168 yards – 20 of those rushes for 99 yards in the first half alone – to eclipse the 1,000-yard mark for the season. Alexis Serna kicked field goals of 29, 31 and 18 yards for Oregon State (7-4, 5-3 Pac-10), whose loss to Stanford (1-10, 1-7) a year ago helped ruin the Beavers’ bowl chances and snapped their four-game winning streak in the series.

The Beavers will head into the Civil War game Friday night against archrival Oregon at Corvallis to play for a possible bid to the Sun Bowl.

Normally, six wins would make a team bowl eligible, but the Beavers have a 13-game schedule.

Oregon State upset then-No. 3 Southern California 33-31 on Oct. 28 for one of those victories.

Sammie Stroughter and Brandon Powers each caught touchdown passes from Moore and Oregon State’s blitzing defense made things tough for Stanford quarterback T.C. Ostrander, sacked five times – all in the second half. Ostrander also was picked off in the end zone by Coye Francies early in the fourth quarter.