Washington State senior inside receiver River Cracraft experienced something Saturday night for the first time in his career with the Cougars.

A victory over Stanford.

Cracraft had an enormous role in WSU’s convincing 42-16 win that snapped an eight-game losing streak to the Cardinal, grabbing a team-high seven receptions for 130 yards, including an acrobatic touchdown catch in the left corner of the end zone early in the fourth quarter that sealed the deal.

“This is one I’ve been waiting for four years,” Cracraft told the Washington State IMG Sports Network afterwards. “I’m glad we were able to do it tonight. I’m just glad to be a part of it. It was a team effort. We showed it last week (51-33 win over Oregon) and we showed it again this week. But this is just the beginning. We need to keep running with it and keep our composure and take it to next week because we have a tough game (vs. UCLA).”

Cracraft, who had 18 receptions but no touchdowns in the first four games to rank fourth on the Cougars, extended his consecutive game streak with at least one reception to 34, a span of nearly three full seasons.

Eleven different WSU receivers caught at least one pass, eight with two or more catches, as the Cougars averaged 8.7 yards per pass attempt.

Stanford’s strategy of blanketing WSU’s receivers with man-to-man coverage backfired.

“They definitely played a lot more man (coverage) than we expected,” said Cracraft, who now has 190 career receptions. “I was comfortable. I think I proved to myself and to Luke last week that I could win those one-on-one battles. I just wanted the ball more, I was hungry for it. I wanted a touchdown, I wanted the ball. Luke and I were on the same page. I’m glad with the way it worked out.”

Leach said Stanford might have gotten out of their comfort zone by relying extensively on man coverage.

“They’ve always played some man and Cover 3,” Leach said. “What they did is they replaced Cover 3 with four across. They’ve always done a lot of man, but we thought they would do less against us.”

Quarterback Luke Falk shook off an early interception to complete 29 of his final 39 passes, eventually throwing for 357 yards and four touchdowns to three different receivers. It marked his fourth 300-yard passing game this season and 18th of his distinguished career.

Tavares Martin Jr. caught two passes for Washington State, both for touchdowns. His second TD grab came on a clutch fourth-and-7 play from the STA 29-yard line as the Cougars spurned the long field goal attempt by the struggling Erik Powell.

After an interception and punt ended Washington State’s first two possessions, the Cougars scored touchdowns on five of their next eight possessions as the offensive line asserted its dominance even with right tackle Cole Madison injured on the bench.

“When we got into sync on offense, we finished a bunch of drives,” Leach said. “Once we got into sync, we were real tough up front.”

While Washington State’s passing attack was razor sharp, the Cougars’ victory is mainly attributable to their domination in the trenches. Spearheaded again by defensive end Hercules Mata’afa (6 tackles, 1 sack, 1 TFL, 1 QH pressure), the defensive line continued their outstanding play by making life miserable all night long for the supposedly stout Stanford offensive line.

The improving WSU defense finished with three sacks, four tackles for loss, two interceptions and four quarterback hurries.

Most importantly, they broke the code on how to contain Christian McCaffrey, holding the All-American running back and special teams standout to 35 yards rushing on eight carries, one reception for five yards and three short kickoff returns.

Because Stanford scored a touchdown on the final play of the game and earlier scored on a Pick-6, the Washington State defense essentially limited the Cardinal to three points in meaningful action.

The normally powerful Stanford rushing attack was held to 61 yards on 26 carries, an average of 2.3 yards per carry, as the Cougars defense did a good job minimizing the number of explosive plays by Stanford.

“Our defensive line played really well,” Leach said. “They were violent. They used their hands. And that was against a very good offensive front and one of the best running backs in the country.”

Washington State actually outgained Stanford in the ground game, 101-61, as the Cougars eclipsed the century mark for the third straight game.

Stanford rarely penetrated the red zone, settling for three 40+ yard field goal attempts. Their only red zone score came on the final play of the game.

The Cougars have allowed just 55 points in three games since Mike Leach challenged their toughness following the Week 2 loss at Boise State.

“We played downhill all week long and we had some good practices,” Mata’afa said. “That’s what made us succeed on the field. When we came here, everybody expected us to be scared of Stanford. But we were just playing ball out here. It was fun.

“Our unit (defense) had its integrity questioned as a whole after the first couple of games. We didn’t like that. We wanted to change the perception as to how we were seen by other opponents. We wanted them to fear what’s coming.”

NOTES

-- Washington State forced three turnovers on Saturday night, improving their record under second-year defensive coordinator Alex Grinch to 11-3 when they have 2+ takeaways.

-- WSU recorded its first win over a Top-15 team since beating No. 5 Texas in the 2003 Holiday Bowl and the first regular season win over a Top-15 team since winning at No. 10 Oregon in 2003.

-- Shalom Luani made his second straight start at Nickel as Robert Taylor started at free safety. Luani finished Saturday’s game with four tackles and one pass breakup. Freshman defensive back led Washington State with seven tackles.

-- Offensive lineman Noah Osur-Myers made his collegiate debut for the Cougars.

-- Gabe Marks caught five passes to increase his career total to 261, moving him into second place in Pac-12 history.

-- Luke Falk now has 70 career TD passes, tying Jason Gesser for third in WSU history and No. 20 in Pac-

12 history.