PULLMAN, Wash. -- The game at Martin Stadium was billed as the biggest for Washington State in more than a decade.
For Stanford, it was just one more game that had to be won to make certain the Cardinal remain in the national playoff discussion.
The Cardinal showed championship mettle by rallying in the fourth quarter for a hard-fought 30-28 victory on Saturday night. Stanford's Conrad Ukropina kicked a game-winning, 19-yard field goal with 1:54 left and Washington State's Erik Powell missed a 43-yard field goal attempt as time expired.
Senior quarterback Kevin Hogan ran for back-to-back touchdowns of 59 and 6 yards to help Stanford forge a 27-22 lead 41 seconds into the fourth quarter.
Quarterback Luke Falk quickly led the Cougars down the field before hitting River Cracraft with a 1-yard touchdown pass with 7:56 left, but Falk failed to complete a two-point conversion pass and Ukropina's deciding field goal produced the only remaining points.
"Kevin Hogan has so much heart," Stanford coach David Shaw said. "He is such a fighter. I couldn't be more proud of him because not everything was working for him and we had to lean on him as a runner, and he made some great runs."
Hogan's second touchdown and Ukropina's field goal were set up by the first two interceptions for freshman cornerback Quenton Meeks, who was making his first start.
"We worked so hard as a unit on defense to learn about our opponent and what we were going to do," Meeks said. "I knew exactly what they were doing before they were doing it. That's a credit to our coaching staff, our players -- for taking the time and putting in the effort -- and on myself for just pushing to be great."
Stanford (7-1, 6-0) solidified its hold on first place in the Pac-12 North Division. Washington State (5-3, 3-2), tied for second with Oregon, failed to secure bowl eligibility by picking up its sixth win of the season.
The Cardinal has won seven in a row since opening the season with a 16-6 loss at Northwestern. The Cougars, bidding for its first winning season since 2003, lost to Stanford for the eighth straight time.
"There's no room to be satisfield with this game, Washington State coach Mike Leach said. "We have to improve from here and we have to be a better team."
Hogan passed for just 86 yards and an interception but ran for a career-high 112 yards. Standout running back Christian McCaffrey added 107 yards on the ground.
Falk completed 35 of 61 passes for 354 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. Falk connected with 11 different receivers, and the Cougars topped the Cardinal 442-312 in total yards despite a 226-88 deficit in rushing. The game was played in rain and wind before an announced crowd of 30,012.
After Ukropina opened the scoring with a 32-yard field goal in the first quarter, Powell scored the next 15 points by tying the school record of five field goals in one game.
Hogan ran for 39 yards to set up the first touchdown of the game, a 2-yard run by Remound Wright midway through the third quarter. Falk quickly responded with a 19-yard touchdown pass to Gabe Falk, and Ukropina kicked a 32-yard field goal before Hogan's two touchdowns.
"We didn't play well on offense the first half," Leach said. "I thought we played tough defensively. In the second half, we turned the quarterback loose."
Washington State linebacker Jeremiah Allison said, "We knew (Hogan) was mobile, but we did not do what we needed to do to stop him."
Next Saturday, Stanford visits Colorado, and Arizona State comes to Washington State.
NOTES: Stanford has produced more NFL draftees (19) than any other Pac-12 team in the past four years. More impressively, the Cardinal have graduated the highest percentage of football players (99 percent) among Pac-12 schools during the same four years. ... The Cougars have been trying to attract ESPN's popular "College GameDay" television program to tiny, isolated Pullman for years. ESPN officials debated long and hard before choosing Philadelphia (where No. 9 Notre Dame faced unbeaten and No. 21 Temple) over Pullman for Saturday's show. A Temple supporter added to the pain of Washington State fans by holding aloft a sign on "GameDay" that read, "WAZZU YOU MAD BRO?" Wazzu, of course, is a nickname for Washington State. ... Paul Wulff, fired as Washington State's head coach before the Cougars hired Leach after the 2011 season, has joined the Iowa State staff as a volunteer assistant coach. Wulff was fired by South Florida last year after one season as offensive coordinator.
