COLLEGE FOOTBALL : Stanford’s Defense Gives Oregon State Few Options

Stanford pulled out of its slump and extended Oregon State’s by rediscovering defense.

The Cardinal forced four turnovers and held the Beavers to a season-low in scoring in a 24-3 victory Saturday that rekindled postseason aspirations for Stanford, 5-2-1 overall and 3-2 in the Pacific 10.

Oregon State (1-7, 0-5) slid to its seventh consecutive loss. The Beavers are 0-12-1 in their last 13 games at Stanford.

“It’s the same story. We didn’t do what it takes to win,” Oregon State running back Mark Olford said. “Right now, it’s a bad situation. Nothing’s going right. They fumble and we don’t get it. We fumble and they get it. There’s no way to explain. A lot of things are going bad and not enough good things are happening to us. It’s hard on everybody.”

The Cardinal, who dropped out of the Top 25 after successive losses to Washington and UCLA in which the opposition ran for 552 yards and nine touchdowns, kept the conference’s top-rushing offense from making any big plays.

“We came up big when we had to. We kept them out of the end zone,” Stanford defensive lineman Kailee Wong said. “Now we know we can do this. OSU is a good running team but we had an answer to it.”