Cade Klubnik threw touchdown passes to three different receivers over a 5:33 span bridging the third and fourth quarters Saturday night, helping 17th-ranked Clemson pull away from visiting Stanford for a 40-14 Atlantic Coast Conference football victory.
Klubnik finished with four touchdown passes and a 34-yard TD run for the Tigers (3-1, 2-0 ACC), who have outscored opponents 165-69 since a 34-3 opening loss to Georgia.
Micah Ford rushed 15 times for a game-high 122 yards for Stanford (2-2, 1-1), which was playing on the East Coast for the second consecutive week in its first two ACC games.
Klubnik’s TD run opened the scoring and came three plays after Stanford failed on a fourth-and-1 at its own 34 on the game’s opening possession.
The Tigers’ lead became 10-0 when Nolan Hauser nailed a 20-yard field goal five plays after an Avieon Terrell interception in the end zone that denied Stanford the second time it had the ball.
The Cardinal managed to stay within 17-7 at halftime when Ashton Daniels’ 19-yard touchdown pass to Elic Ayomanor with 39 seconds left in the second period offset a 3-yard Jake Briningstool TD catch 70 seconds earlier.
A second Hauser field goal, this one from 33 yards, had Clemson up just 20-7 before Klubnik’s spree.
He threw 43 yards to Cole Turner, 34 yards to Bryant Wesco Jr. and 2 yards to Olsen Patt-Henry, the latter coming with 10:36 remaining in the game and extending the hosts’ lead to 40-7.
Stanford’s Justin Lamson threw 22 yards to Emmett Mosley V for a touchdown with 2:31 to go to cap the scoring.
Klubnik went 15-for-31 passing for 255 yards with one interception. Wesco was the Tigers’ leading receiver with 104 yards on just two catches, while Phil Mafah led Clemson rushers with 10 carries for 58 yards. Klubnik had 48 yards on seven runs.
Mosley had seven catches for 48 yards and Ayomanor four for a team-high 50 for the Cardinal, which was outgained just 405-361 but hurt itself with three turnovers to the Tigers’ one.
Daniels was intercepted three times during a 9-for-19, 71-yard performance, before Lamson came on in relief to throw for 54 yards on 4-for-8 passing.
-Field Level Media
