Lost touchdown aside, Stanford tight ends looking good

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When Austin Hooper broke into the clear and waited for the ball in the end zone, all he had to do was grab it and the redshirt freshman tight end would have his first Stanford touchdown. Or so it appeared.

He made the grab, and Stanford Stadium erupted. But a flag was thrown back at the line of scrimmage because Remound Wright hit a USC defender low while a Stanford lineman was engaging him high. The chop-block penalty erased the touchdown, which would have given the Cardinal a 17-10 lead with about eight minutes left.

Hooper admitted he was disappointed but said, "At the end of the day, that's football. Sometimes plays don't go your way. You have to move on."

Stanford head coach David Shaw had no quarrel with the call. "We have to be smarter than that. ... Any contact above the waist and below the waist at the same time is a penalty."

Hooper, a former De La Salle-Concord standout, had a fine day anyway, catching four passes for 61 yards. His 26-yard reception in the third quarter helped Stanford make its deepest penetration of the second half. But freshman fullback Daniel Marx was stopped inches short of a first down at the USC 3.

The tight end position has clearly returned to the Stanford passing game after a year's hiatus. In the first two games, tight ends have combined for 11 catches, one more than they caught all of last season.

Montgomery milestone: Ty Montgomery led Stanford with nine catches for 83 yards. His 31-yard kickoff return late in the third quarter made him the Cardinal's all-time leader in career kickoff return yardage with 2,133. Chris Owusu held the old record of 2,132.

Montgomery also rushed four times from the wildcat formation. When Graham Shuler's snap sailed over his head, a 16-yard loss that scuttled a Stanford possession, the yardage was deducted from Montgomery's rushing total. So he netted minus-7 yards.

Bad sequence: Near the end of the first half, Stanford was called for an illegal formation and delay of game on successive plays. Shaw blamed "bad communication" on the sideline for the illegal formation. "When the personnel (grouping) was called, some guys thought they heard one thing; some guys thought they heard another thing. We ended up with 12 guys on the field."

Briefly: Stanford has lost just two of its past 19 games to in-state opponents, both to USC. ... After running a Pac-12-record 105 plays against Fresno State last week, USC had just 59 snaps against the Cardinal. ... Stanford offensive tackle Andrus Peat had to leave the game a few times with a bloody nose.