Oregon’s Stewart steps up

After waiting so long to be the featured runner in Oregon’s backfield, Jonathan Stewart didn’t need the speech.

Still, Oregon Coach Mike Bellotti made sure Stewart was comfortable carrying the load with backfield mate Jeremiah Johnson out for the season because of a knee injury.

Stewart, who waited 2 1/2 seasons for this moment, gave his coach an emphatic answer Saturday night with the second-best rushing performance in Oregon history. Stewart ran for a career-high 251 yards and two touchdowns, Andre Crenshaw had 113 yards and two second-half scores, and No. 7 Oregon pulled away late for a 55-34 win over Washington.

“When somebody goes down like Jeremiah last week, somebody has to step up,” Stewart said. “Right now we’re not missing a beat.”

The Ducks finished with a school-record 465 rushing yards and 661 total yards. The final numbers even staggered some of Oregon’s offensive linemen, who bullied Washington’s defense.

“It’s really, really unbelievable,” Oregon left tackle Max Unger said. “It’s a pretty unbelievable feeling when you see the [defensive] line and you can choose what runs you want to do. That’s never really happened before.”

Whether it was pounding runs inside or stretching the Huskies to the perimeter, Stewart and the Ducks were never stopped.

Stewart rushed for 144 yards at halftime, had 198 at the end of the three quarters, and became the first Oregon back to rush for 200 yards since Onterrio Smith set a school record with 285 yards against Washington State in 2001.

The Seattle-area native who spurned Washington, finished with 32 carries, seven more than his previous high.

Stanford 21, Arizona 20 -- Jeremy Stewart scored on a one-yard run midway through the fourth quarter and the Cardinal (3-4, 2-3) rallied to beat the Wildcats (2-6, 1-4) at Tucson.

It was the second Pac-10 road victory in as many tries for the Cardinal, who upset then-No. 2 USC at the Coliseum two weeks ago.

Stanford sophomore quarterback Tavita Pritchard improved to 2-1 as a starter, with both wins coming on the road. Pritchard completed 19 of 27 passes for 181 yards and a touchdown.