Ethan Garbers made his first start since the season opener and threw for 240 yards and two touchdowns to help No. 25 UCLA to a 42–7 win against host Stanford in a Pac-12 game on Saturday night, Oct. 21.
Garbers completed 20 of 28 passes with no turnovers. The junior also rushed for 51 yards on eight carries.
Carson Steele led the ground attack with 76 yards and three touchdowns, and T.J. Harden contributed 55 rushing yards and a touchdown for UCLA (5–2, 2–2 Pac-12), which was coming off three straight games against ranked opponents in its conference, losing two.
Stanford quarterback Ashton Daniels completed 27 of 45 passes for 268 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
The Cardinal (2–5, 1–4) were held to 24 rushing yards.
Garbers went 4–for–4 for 33 yards on the opening drive of the game and also rushed twice for 23 yards before Steele scored on a 2-yard run for a 7–0 lead.
Steele capped UCLA’s second possession with an 8-yard touchdown run to extend the lead to 14–0.
Not long after the Bruins held Stanford without a first down on its first two drives, Garbers directed a 15-play, 97-yard drive that was capped by Steele’s third touchdown run of the first half, a 3-yarder that made it 21–0 with 5:27 to play until the break.
The Bruins stopped Stanford on fourth down on its first two drives of the second half before moving ahead 28–0 on an 8-yard touchdown pass from Garbers to J. Michael Sturdivant with 6:47 left in the third quarter.
A partially blocked punt gave the Bruins good field position at the Stanford 29, and they took advantage with a 20-yard touchdown pass from Garbers to Moliki Matavao with 4:56 left in the third.
Stanford finally got on the scoreboard when Daniels hit Tiger Bachmeier with a 20-yard touchdown pass to cut it to 35–7 with 3:11 left in the third.
UCLA got the points back when Harden scored on a 22-yard run to make it 42–7 with 14:28 left in the game.
Dante Moore, who had started the past five games with limited success for UCLA, relieved Garbers with about 10 minutes remaining and played one series.
