Smith Goes Long Way to Keep Beavers Afloat

Jonathan Smith passed for 324 yards, including a school-record 97-yard touchdown strike to Chad Johnson, as No. 23-ranked Oregon State beat Stanford, 38-6, on Saturday.

Smith also had a 76-yard scoring pass to T.J. Houshmandzadeh as the Beavers (5-1 overall and 2-1 in the Pacific 10 Conference) had 471 yards of offense despite a subpar day from running back Ken Simonton.

Stanford (2-4, 1-2) lost its third straight game and likely is out of the running to repeat as Pac-10 champion. The Beavers, meanwhile, still have a chance for their first Rose Bowl appearance since 1965.

Johnson’s 97-yard touchdown catch broke the Oregon State record of 92 yards, set in 1983 on a pass from Ladd McKittrick to Reggie Bynum against Washington State.

Simonton, who came in as the nation’s fourth-leading rusher at 162.6 yards a game, carried 14 times for 81 yards. He had a 10-yard touchdown run that gave the Beavers a 31-6 lead with 4:55 left in the third quarter.

Simonton’s backup, Patrick McCall, finished with 53 yards in 10 carries. He also had a 57-yard touchdown run called back because of a holding penalty.

Stanford’s Chris Lewis, making his third straight start in place of Randy Fasani, completed 18 of 33 passes for 185 yards with two interceptions. Fasani, out with a knee injury, might be back for Saturday’s game against USC.