Pacific 10 Roundup : James’ Tactic Pays Off as Huskies Shut Down Paye and Win, 24-14

Washington Coach Don James decided at halftime Saturday night to give up the run in order to stop Stanford quarterback John Paye in the second half.

After Paye burned the Huskies for 213 yards and 2 touchdowns in the first half, James changed his defense and the Huskies escaped with a 24-14 Pacific 10 victory at Stanford.

Washington is 4-1 overall and 2-1 in the conference. Stanford is 4-1 and 1-1.

“We had to worry about containing Paye on the rollout,” James said. “Our defensive linemen felt they could put more pressure on him if we stopped going with the slants and just went with a straight pass rush. We didn’t stop the dive orplay too well in the second half, but you want to try to make Stanford beat you with the dive, not the pass.”

Paye completed 12 of 23 passes for 151 yards and 1 interception in the second half. He was also sacked twice. Paye finished 28 of 47 for 364 yards.

Trailing 14-10 at halftime, Washington scored second-half touchdowns on Chris Chandler’s 42-yard pass to Lonzell Hill and fullback Rich Fenney’s 9-yard run.

Stanford’s David Sweeney missed field goals of 40 and 39 yards, and Washington’s Tony Zachery intercepted a pass from Paye in the end zone on fourth and goal from the five to kill the Cardinal’s best second-half threats.

Arizona St. 37, Oregon 17--Jeff Van Raaphorst passed for 244 yards and 3 touchdowns to lead the 15th-ranked Sun Devils at Eugene, Ore.

Van Raaphorst, completing 13 of 18 attempts, has hit 29 of 37 in his last two games.

The Sun Devils, 4-0-1 overall and 2-0-1 in the Pac-10, were locked in a close game until Van Raaphorst directed an 80-yard scoring drive in the final four minutes of the half.

Trailing 14-10, Oregon had driven to the Arizona State nine-yard line, but Darrin Willis intercepted a Chris Miller pass in the end zone to stop the threat.

The Sun Devils then drove 80 yards in 12 plays with Van Raaphorst throwing a 17-yard touchdown pass to Bruce Hill to boost the Arizona State lead to 20-10 with 28 seconds left in the half.

Miller, the Pac-10 total offense leader, completed 21 of 37 passes for 269 yards and caught a three-yard scoring pass as the Ducks, playing their fourth straight top 20 team, dropped to 2-4 overall and 0-3 in the conference.

Oregon St. 14, California 12--Erik Wilhelm completed 32 of 43 passes for 277 yards and 1 touchdown to lead the Beavers at Berkeley.

Wilhelm’s passing helped Oregon State offset a 149-yard rushing performance by Cal’s Marc Hicks, who had an 80-yard touchdown run to bring the Bears within two points of the Beavers in the third quarter.

Hicks’ run was the longest from scrimmage for the Bears since the current Cal coach, Joe Kapp, ran 92 yards in 1958.

Freshman Troy Taylor started at quarterback for Cal in place of sophomore Brian Bedford and managed 182 yards in total offense, but Oregon State intercepted him once and sacked him five times for 45 yards in losses.

Taylor had Cal moving at the Oregon State 41 midway through the fourth quarter but lost 24 yards on a scramble when he tripped over referee Larry Thompson’s foot at the Cal 35.

Both teams are 1-4 overall and 1-2 in the Pac-10.