PASADENA, Calif. -- J.J. Arcega-Whiteside caught an 8-yard touchdown pass from Ryan Burns with 24 seconds to play, and No. 7 Stanford rallied on its final drive for its ninth consecutive victory over UCLA, 22-13 on Saturday night.
Christian McCaffrey rushed for 138 yards for the Cardinal (3-0, 2-0), who haven't lost to their downstate rivals since 2008.
After struggling on offense for 31/2 quarters at the Rose Bowl, Stanford put together a 70-yard winning drive capped by Burns' fade to Arcega-Whiteside, who got one foot inbounds on an acrobatic play. Solomon Thomas then returned Josh Rosen's fumble 42 yards for a touchdown on the game's final play.
Rosen passed for 248 yards for the Bruins (2-2, 0-1). UCLA's defense faltered late after severely limiting the Cardinal and McCaffrey, who had his 14th consecutive 100-yard rushing game, for most of the night.
After trailing for most of the evening, the defending Pac-12 champions narrowly celebrated yet another victory on the same turf where they won the Rose Bowl game on New Year's Day. Even with the cheap final touchdown, Stanford had its lowest-scoring performance since the 2015 season opener.
JJ Molson hit his second field goal with 6:32 to play to put UCLA up 13-9, but Stanford got the ball back at its 30 with 2:05 left and confidently marched down the field.
In other games involving the Pacific-12 Conference, Steven Montez threw for 333 yards and three touchdowns in his first start as Colorado (3-1, 1-0) held off Oregon (2-2, 0-1) 41-38 in Eugene, Ore. ... Jeremy McNichols ran for 208 yards and scored four touchdowns and Boise State is off to a 3-0 start for the first time since 2011 after a 38-24 victory over Oregon State (1-2) in Corvallis, Ore.
Sports on 09/25/2016