PALO ALTO – Southern Methodist University (SMU) Mustangs’ opening play from their 13-yard line resulted in an 87-yard touchdown pass from quarterback #7 Kevin Jennings to wide receiver, Moochie Dixon, #5.
This was the first of three touchdown passes from Jennings as the nationally-ranked Mustangs (21) easily dictated the pace of the game against the 2-5 Stanford Cardinal, 1-3 in conference play.
After the Cardinals failed to capitalize on any of their early possessions, Kevin Jennings continued to torch the defense with a 45-yard pass to wide receiver, #9 Key’Shawn Smith.
Jennings found Smith wide open on a go-route by the Cardinal sideline, a few yards in front of the Stanford freshman cornerback, #28 Cam Richardson.
Jennings threw a perfect spiral that connected with Smith, in perfect stride, as he easily made his way into the Mustang end zone.
Later in the first quarter, SMU scored a third touchdown with another pass from Jennings to tight end, #82 RJ Maryland.
RJ’s 38-yard dash into the end zone made the score 21-0 at the end of the first quarter.
The Cardinal’s only touchdown of the game came from an 18-yard pass from back-up quarterback, #2 Elijah Brown, replacing starting QB, Ashton Daniels, #14, to wide receiver, Elic Ayomanor, #13.
The score was set up with an interception deep in SMU’s territory by safety, Mitch Leigber, #32.
As the Mustangs’ Jennings was scrambling towards the Stanford sideline, Cardinal linebacker Tristan Sinclair, #8, tackled the elusive quarterback near the 1-yard line which caused the errant throw straight into Leigber’s hands.
Brown located Ayomanor in single coverage and threw a perfect lob, out-leaping SMU safety #22, Cale Sanders, Jr. towards the left corner pylon of the Cardinal end zone. The Mustangs went into halftime with a 31-7 lead over Stanford.
A successful field goal attempt by Stanford in the third quarter made it 31-10 heading into the fourth.
A Mustangs punt pinned Stanford at their own one yard line.
The Cardinals gained a few yards on first down, out of their end zone.
A stifling defense, however, had other ideas to close out the game by securing a safety on the next play as Elijah Brown was sacked a few yards into the end zone.
A later touchdown by SMU sealed their victory as they handed the Cardinals their second straight loss with a final score of 40-10.
Stanford plays Wake Forest next Saturday at 12:30 PM.
