Army’s resolve doesn’t rattle Stanford

WEST POINT, N.Y. — When fifth-ranked Stanford went to the locker room at halftime leading Army by only seven points, Coach David Shaw realized he needn’t worry.

“What I love about the team today is that, when people tell you you’re supposed to win the game by a lot, you come in at halftime and it’s close, if you listened to the outside people you’d get a little anxious,” Shaw said. “In the locker room at halftime, we were not anxious. We knew we had to play our best, came out in the second half, and played great.”

Played to a near standstill the first two quarters by a 30-point underdog, the Cardinal regrouped in the second half and beat the Black Knights 34-20 on Saturday. Kevin Hogan threw for three touchdowns and Tyler Gaffney had two touchdowns and 132 yards rushing for the Cardinal (2-0).

Still, Stanford had its hands full against Army’s triple option offense, falling behind 6-0 at the outset as the much smaller Black Knights (1-2) challenged at every turn.

“They came out there with a little bit different approach than what we had seen,” said defensive end Josh Mauro, who led Stanford with seven tackles. “It just took guys having the will to do their jobs. We made some adjustments in the second half to stop the inside run. We got the look all week, but it’s so much different when you’re actually doing it.

“All the credit to them. They played their butts off.”

Hogan’s 23-yard touchdown pass to Gaffney after an Army turnover gave Stanford a 27-13 lead late in the third quarter and the Cardinal averted an embarrassing moment. Army has not defeated a ranked team since a 17-14 victory over No. 15 Air Force on Nov. 4, 1972.

“We kept our calm. We tried to keep an even keel,” Gaffney said after his second consecutive solid performance following a year of minor-league baseball. “We went out there knowing that six points wasn’t going to win the game. We went out there with the same mindset, keep grinding. We didn’t overlook them. We had to keep grinding. We were down. Adversity stepped in and we responded.”

Ty Montgomery had 6 catches for 130 yards and 1 score, while Hogan was 11 of 18 for 188 yards passing for Stanford.

Terry Baggett led Army with 96 yards rushing on nine carries.

In other games involving Pacific-12 teams, Cody Kessler passed for 237 yards and two touchdowns, Tre Madden became the first Southern California player to open a season with three consecutive 100-yard rushing games in 32 years and the Trojans (2-1) beat Boston

College (2-1) 35-7 in Los Angeles. ... Connor Halliday threw for 383 yards and five touchdowns as Washington State (2-1) beat Southern Utah (2-1) 48-10 in its home opener. … Kenny Guiton threw three of his four touchdown passes in the first six minutes of his first career start and No. 4 Ohio State (3-0) rolled to its 15th consecutive victory, 52-34 over

California (1-2) in Berkeley, Calif.

MOUNTAIN WEST Wyoming wins big LARAMIE, Wyo. — Brett Smith passed for 264 yards and a touchdown, Shaun Wick rushed for two touchdowns and the Wyoming defense returned two interceptions for scores as the Cowboys (2-1) beat Northern Colorado (1-2) 35-7 in a game delayed nearly an hour by lightning Saturday.

Smith completed 30 of 47 passes with 1 interception. Dominic Rufran caught nine passes for 87 yards, including a 6-yard touchdown.

Wick ran 16 times for 87 yards, scoring on runs of 1 and 20 yards.

Wyoming ( 2- 1) also scored its first defensive touchdowns of the season with defensive backs Jordan Stanton and Cortland Fort each returning an interception for a touchdown. Stanton grabbed a tipped pass and weaved his way around and through would-be tacklers 39 yards for the score, while Fort stepped in front of a pass to the sideline and raced 50 yards untouched.

Tim Tancik led the Bears (1-2), completing 16 of 29 passes for 161 yards and 1 touchdown.

In another game involving Mountain West Conference teams, Garrett Grayson threw for 297 yards and two touchdowns and Shaq Barrett blocked two field goals to lead Colorado State (1-2) to a 34-17 victory over Cal Poly (1-2) in Fort Collins, Colo.