College Football : Cal and Stanford Tie for Last Place : They Both Finish at Bottom of Pac-10 After 19-19 Game

BERKELEY, Calif. — Stanford cornerback Tuan Van Le blocked Robbie Keen’s 20-yard attempt for a school-record fifth field goal with no time remaining to preserve a 19-19 tie with California in the 91st Big Game Saturday.

The season-ending tie left the two rivals deadlocked for last place in the Pacific-10. California, missing out on a chance for its first winning season since 1982, wound up 5-5-1 overall and 1-5-1 in the conference. Stanford wound up 3-6-2 and 1-5-2.

Keen had connected on 13 straight field goals before missing a 46-yarder in the third quarter.

The Bears appeared headed for victory after David Ortega intercepted a Jason Palumbis pass and returned it to the Stanford 30 with 3:39 left in the game.

Cal moved to the Stanford 3 in five plays and ran down the clock to set up a short field goal. But Van Le broke through and got a piece of Keen’s kick from the left hash mark, stunning the capacity crowd of 75,662 at Memorial Stadium.

Cal had tied the game at 19-19 on an 80-yard march climaxed by Troy Taylor’s 19-yard touchdown pass to Mike Ford with 9:08 to play and Keen’s conversion. Two plays earlier, an interception by Stanford safety Rob Englehardt near midfield was wiped out when the Cardinal was called for roughing the passer.

Both Keen and Stanford’s John Hopkins tied school records with four field goals apiece.

The Cardinal’s only touchdown came with 2:45 left in the second quarter on a 95-yard kickoff return by Kevin Scott.

Scott, a sophomore who also starts at cornerback, interrupted a field-goal battle with the only touchdown of the first half. He burst through a crowd of would-be tacklers, leapt over a Cal player at midfield and won a footrace to the end zone.

Keen, who entered the game tied for fourth among field-goal kickers nationwide, opened the scoring with a 36-yarder. He connected later in the half from 44, 39 and 21 yards, the latter with 13 seconds left in the second period to pull Cal within 13-12.

Hopkins kicked field goals of 44 and 46 yards to give him 10 in a row.

Cal, while plagued by penalties and dropped passes, controlled the first half in piling up 229 yards in the first half to only 86 for Stanford. The Bears wound up with a 391-208 advantage in total yardage, limiting Stanford tailback to 56 yards on 23 carries.