Stanford beat Nevada 46-12, while Sacramento State upended Chico State 29-20.

The Cardinal banged in seven tries against the Wolf Pack in Reno, NV. Wing John Hofius led the way with a hat-trick and was ably assisted by flanker Brendan Corbett who scored twice.

Ian Abernathy and Preston Rutherford rounded out Stanford’s try scoring. Flyhalf John Clark turned in another solid game and overall the coaching staff was happy with the way things panned out.

“The second half was much better,” Stanford head coach told ARN. “We’re very pleased.”

Stanford led 15-5 at halftime. Nevada was simply outplayed by a better team on the day. James Edwards and Chad Gielow scored tries for the Pack.

“We had too many new players who didn’t know the rules,” added Nevada head coach Bruce Anderson.

Meantime in the California state capital, Sacramento State sprung an unlikely upset by downing the visiting Wildcats. Chico State led narrowly 13-12 at the break but were eventually outscored by five tries to three.

The Wildcats have been plagued with injuries and consequently were forced to start six backup players.

“Good win for Sac State, they really out hustled us,” Chico State head coach Mitch Jagoe told ARN. “The good news is that we should have three starters back for the playoffs.”

As a result of Saturday’s games, Stanford improved to 5-8-1 overall, Sacramento State moved to 2-9, Chico State fell to 6-7, and Nevada dropped to 2-8.

Chico State will be the Northern California #4 seed going into the Pacific Coast playoff bracket in Ellensburg, WA, while Stanford will be the #5 seed and will play in the bracket to be held at either Moraga or Davis in northern California depending on whether St Mary’s or UC Davis finishes second in the standings.

Those two teams are due to meet Thursday in a rescheduled league fixture.