Arizona State shakes off bad start

In a matter of seconds, Arizona State turned a close game into a blowout.

Rudy Carpenter threw a 62-yard touchdown pass to Rudy Burgess late in the second quarter and Omar Bolden returned an interception for a score on the next play from scrimmage to lead the 23rd-ranked Sun Devils to a 41-3 victory over Stanford at Palo Alto on Saturday night.

Arizona State (5-0, 2-0 Pac-10) had been struggling offensively up until that point, giving up five sacks and being held to a pair of field goals by a woeful Stanford defense.

Then on a third-and-8, Burgess took a pass from Carpenter and sped past the Cardinal defenders to the end zone for the first touchdown of the game with 2:31 left in the half.

After a touchback on the ensuing kick, T.C. Ostrander tried to connect with Richard Sherman for Stanford (1-3, 0-2). But Robert James knocked the ball away and into the hands of Bolden, who raced 29 yards for Arizona State’s second touchdown in a span of nine seconds.

Arizona 48, Washington State 20 -- Willie Tuitama threw for five touchdowns and freshman Nicolas Grigsby rushed for 186 yards in his second start for the Wildcats in the lopsided victory at Tucson, Ariz.

Grigsby, who rushed 30 times, caught nine passes for 76 yards, including a 22-yarder for a touchdown.

Tuitama completed 22 of 31 passes for 346 yards with no interceptions. He also had a one-yard sneak for a score as Arizona (2-3, 1-1 Pac-10) scored 28 consecutive points after Washington State rallied to tie the score, 20-20, early in the second half.