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Los Angeles • Andre Heidari kicked a 47-yard field goal with 19 seconds to play, and Southern California's stalwart defense repeatedly came up big in a 20-17 victory over No. 5 Stanford on Saturday night.
Cody Kessler passed for 288 yards for the revitalized Trojans (8-3, 5-2 Pac-12), who earned their fifth win in six games under interim coach Ed Orgeron.
USC's remarkable defensive performance included two fourth-quarter interceptions against the powerful Cardinal (8-2, 6-2), who followed up last week's win over Oregon by getting knocked out of the national title chase and maybe the Rose Bowl race as well.
After the inconsistent Heidari's field goal and Stanford's final play, USC fans stormed the Coliseum field, where Stanford had won in its last three trips.
Heidari nearly lost his job twice this season, and he missed an extra point in the first quarter. But the junior coolly nailed the tiebreaking field goal — and then got an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for running the length of the field to celebrate it.
Soma Vainuku caught an early TD pass and Javorius Allen rushed for a score for USC, which didn't score in the second half until Heidari's kick. Nelson Agholor had eight catches for 104 yards, while Marqise Lee had six catches for 83 yards — and both receivers made big plays on USC's final drive.
Tyler Gaffney rushed for 158 yards and two touchdowns for Stanford. Kevin Hogan went 14 of 25 for 127 yards, but the Cardinal couldn't regain the lead after trailing 17-10 at half.
Washington State 24, Arizona 17 • In Tucson, Ariz., Connor Halliday threw 25 yards to Isiah Myers for the tiebreaking touchdown with 2:15 to play to give Washington State an upset over Arizona. Halliday completed 39 of 53 passes for 319 yards and two scores, the junior's seventh 300-yard passing of the season.
The Cougars had lost their previous three games by a combined score of 162-83.
Colorado 41, California 24 • In Boulder, Colo., Sefo Liufau threw for a career-high 364 yards and Paul Richardson tied a team record with 11 receptions to help Colorado snap a 14-game conference losing streak by beating slumping California. Liufau also tossed three TD passes as he outplayed fellow freshman Jared Goff, who struggled to ignite the offense as the Bears dropped their 13th straight league game. —
Standings
Conference All Games
W L PF PA W L PF PA
North
Oregon 6 1 325 155 9 1 509 182
Stanford 6 1 219 142 8 1 287 175
Oregon St. 4 2 222 157 6 3 335 250
Washington 3 4 238 207 6 4 366 237
Wash. St. 3 4 178 270 5 5 292 311
California 0 8 162 362 1 10 263 488
South
Ariz. St. 5 1 272 160 7 2 393 227
UCLA 5 2 212 183 8 2 370 237
USC 5 2 218 165 8 3 310 213
Arizona 3 4 199 196 6 4 330 222
Colorado 1 6 137 327 4 6 259 388
Utah 1 6 169 224 4 6 289 270
Friday's game
UCLA 41, Washington 31
Saturday's games
Washington State 24, Arizona 17
Oregon 44, Utah 21
Colorado 41, Cal 24
USC 20, Stanford 17
Arizona State vs. Oregon State, late