Rankin leads Huskies to win

STANFORD, Calif. – Everything went so right for Louis Rankin that even his one big mistake didn’t end up hurting Washington.

Rankin ran for 255 yards and a touchdown in the best performance by a Washington running back in 11 years, helping the Huskies avenge a humiliating loss to Stanford last year by beating the Cardinal 27-9 on Saturday. It was the Huskies’ first Pac-10 win this season.

“I have to run confident and hard when there’s nobody there at all,” Rankin said. “I have to hit it full speed because there wasn’t really anybody around at all. It was wide open.”

The only blunder for Rankin came when he lost a fumble at his 1-yard line in the second quarter with the Huskies (3-6, 1-5) leading 10-3. But Byron Davenport forced a fumble by Corey Gatewood and Mesphin Forrester recovered for UW at the 1, preserving the lead and absolving Rankin for his mistake.

“It took a lot of pressure off me because I could have cost us the game right there,” Rankin said. “The defense stepped up and made a big play and it came out well.”

Rankin did the rest, carrying the ball 36 times to help the Huskies finish with a season-high 388 yards on the ground and snap a six-game losing streak. Rankin’s total was the most for a Huskies back since Corey Dillon ran for 259 yards against Oregon in 1996.

Jake Locker ran for two scores, set the Washington single-season rushing record for a quarterback and even threw a key block on one long run by Rankin. But the Huskies mostly just handed the ball to Rankin.

“Our passing game wasn’t gelling tonight like we wanted to,” offensive coordinator Tom Lappano said. “With him running like that and we were handling them up front, we had a pretty good rhythm running. We wanted to stay with that.”

A year ago, Stanford went to Washington winless and pulled off a 20-3 upset that cost the Huskies a chance at a bowl bid. This time, Washington played the role of spoiler, all but ending any hopes for the Cardinal (3-6, 2-5) to make a bowl game in coach Jim Harbaugh’s first season on The Farm.

After allowing 147 points the past three weeks, the Huskies had six sacks and held the Cardinal to 253 yards.

Stanford has won just once in four games since its shocking upset at Southern California last month and dropped to 1-10 in two years at its renovated stadium.

Stanford quarterback Tavita Pritchard left the game in the first quarter with an injured left shoulder and was replaced by T.C. Ostrander. Ostrander, who began the season as the starter, finished 16 for 28 for 133 yards.

“This is one of the most frustrating games I have ever played in,” Ostrander said. “We killed ourselves with penalties and missed assignments and sloppiness in our play.”

Locker finished with 97 yards rushing, giving him 791 to break the mark set by Dennis Fitzpatrick in 1974.