Stanford football: Cardinal falls hard to UCLA

STANFORD – There was no record-breaking comeback this time. Just another blowout loss to a ranked opponent.

Stanford fell 42-7 to UCLA on Saturday night its last scheduled game against a team it has played every year since World War II.

The 25th-ranked Bruins (5-2, 2-2 Pac-12) led 21-0 at halftime. It was the second straight game that Stanford (2-5, 1-4) had been shut out in the first half, after the Cardinal trailed 29-0 at Colorado. But while Stanford engineered the biggest comeback in school history against the Buffaloes, it couldn’t close the gap this time.

Instead, the results were similar to Stanford’s other games against ranked opponents this season – a 56-10 loss to No. 18 USC and a 42-6 loss to No. 9 Oregon.

“Got off to another slow start,” coach Troy Taylor said. “Against a really good football team, you can’t get behind like that. Last week we were able to come back and this week we just didn’t start well in any of the three phases and didn’t do enough to get back in the second half.”

The Bruins gave redshirt junior Ethan Garbers his first start of the season over freshman Dante Moore. Garbers led UCLA to touchdowns on its first two possessions and then led a 15-play, 97-yard drive in the second quarter to make it 21-0.

Ayomanor, who set a school record with 294 receiving yards last week, had eight catches for 90 yards against the Bruins, but he also made two mistakes that potentially cost Stanford points – an offensive pass interference penalty that knocked the Cardinal out of field goal range, and then a fumble at the UCLA 33.

The Cardinal had 10 penalties for 112 yards midway through the third quarter, while UCLA had one penalty for five yards.

Stanford also couldn’t do anything on the ground against the Bruins, which led the nation by allowing just 2.3 yards a run. Cardinal running backs had seven carries for 14 yards and the team overall had 17 rushes for 24 yards.

“We knew it was going to be difficult to run the ball,” Taylor said. “We were hoping we would be able to protect and sustain some drives, but we just didn’t sustain any drives offensively.”

Stanford’s lone score was a 20-yard TD pass from Ashton Daniels to Tiger Bachmeier with 3:11 left in the third quarter to make the score 35-7. Daniels finished 27 of 45 passing for 268 yards and an INT.

The Cardinal will try again to win its first home game under first-year coach Troy Taylor when it hosts No. 5 Washington next Saturday.