Stanford nabs division title

— Stepfan Taylor rushed for 142 yards and two touchdowns, Kevin Hogan passed for 160 yards and another score, and No. 8 Stanford beat No. 17 UCLA 35-17 Saturday to win the Pacific-12 Conference North title and a rematch with the Bruins in the conference championship game.

The Cardinal (10-2, 8-1 Pac-12), who have three consecutive 10-victory seasons for the first time, handed Oregon a 17-14 overtime setback last weekend to put themselves in position to win the Pac-12 North title with a victory over the Pac-12 South champion Bruins (9-3, 6-3), who earned their berth in the title game by beating Southern California 38-28 last weekend.

The victory was the sixth consecutive for Stanford and their fourth in a row over UCLA, which had a five-game winning streak snapped — its longest in seven years.

Taylor, a 5-11, 215-pound senior who carried 20 times, didn’t play in the fourth quarter. He raised his career rushing total to 4,134 yards and will need 36 yards in the rematch with UCLA to break the Stanford career rushing record of 4,169 yards set by Darrin Nelson in 1977-1981.

Hogan, a redshirt freshman making his third start at quarterback for Stanford, completed 15 of 22 passes without being intercepted and was sacked twice. He has guided the Cardinal to victories over three consecutive ranked opponents, something they had never accomplished before.

Sports, Pages 34 on 11/25/2012

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