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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted at 4:58 p.m., Saturday, October 6, 2007

Stanford upsets No. 2 Southern California, 24-23

By JOHN NADEL
AP Sports Writer

LOS ANGELES — Led by a backup quarterback, Stanford pulled off a stunner.

Tavita Pritchard threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Mark Bradford on a fourth-and-goal with 49 seconds remaining tonight, giving the 41-point underdog Cardinal a 24-23 victory over No. 2 Southern California.

The Cardinal (2-4, 1-3 Pac-10) moved 45 yards in 11 plays for the winning touchdown after John David Booty threw the third of his four interceptions.

A leaping Bradford caught the ball over cornerback Mozique McCurtis in the corner of the end zone, leaving the crowd of 85,125 at the Los Angeles Coliseum in stunned silence.

In the days leading up to the game, first-year Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh stuck to his preseason assessment that USC might be the greatest college football team ever. In the end, the Trojans weren't the best team in the Coliseum field.

The Trojans (4-1, 2-1) dropped to No. 2 in the AP Top 25 after barely holding on for a 27-24 victory over underdog Washington in Seattle last weekend. They'll drop a lot more this week after losing to a team that was playing its first road game of the season and had been outscored 141-51 in previous Pac-10 action.

USC's 35-game winning streak at the Coliseum is done. The Trojans hadn't lost at home since Stanford beat them 21-16 on Sept. 29, 2001 in the first year of the Pete Carroll era.

Pritchard, a sophomore from Tacoma, Wash., filling in for the injured T.C. Ostrander, completed 11-of-30 for 149 yards and the winning TD in his first college start. The numbers weren't great, but he was awfully good when it counted, leading Stanford to 17 fourth-quarter points.