Martini Has Right Blend for San Jose : Spartans: Quarterback passes for 361 yards to lead team to its second consecutive victory over Stanford, 29-23.

L.A. Times Archives

Sept. 30, 1990 12 AM PT

From Associated Press

STANFORD — If San Jose State quarterback Ralph Martini would have impressed Stanford admissions officers the way he did the school’s football coaches, the Cardinal may have been on the other end of a 29-23 loss to the Spartans.

“BYU and San Jose State recruited me, and I really wanted to come to Stanford, but my SAT scores weren’t good enough,” said Martini, whose football scores--four touchdown passes and another two-point conversion pass--were more than enough for a San Jose victory Saturday.

“The Spartan-Stanford game is for heroes, and today, Martini was a hero,” said San Jose State Coach Terry Shea, whose 3-1-1 team won for the second consecutive year at Stanford, where they are 6-4 since 1981.

Martini completed 23 of 32 passes for 361 yards, without an interception, to outduel Stanford’s Jason Palumbis, who was 27 of 39 for 387 yards, with one touchdown and an interception.

Stanford Coach Dennis Green, whose 1-3 team goes to South Bend, Ind., next week to face top-ranked Notre Dame, said: “We didn’t play as well as we hoped; we should have played better.”

Martini and Maceo Barbosa had a 72-yard touchdown pass play, San Jose State’s longest offensive play of the year, on the second play of the second half to go ahead 21-3. But Stanford regrouped and scored 13 points in 39 seconds to trail 21-16 with 12:31 left in the third quarter.

Palumbis teamed with Glyn Milburn on a 69-yard pass play down the sideline for the first Stanford touchdown, cutting the lead to 21-10.

After the Spartans fumbled away the kickoff return, Stanford’s Tommy Vardell scored on a one-yard dive to make it 21-16. A two-point conversion try failed.

Martini then took the Spartans on an eight-play, 70-yard drive late in the third quarter. He hit Bryce Burnett on a three-yard scoring pass and then found Barbosa in the end zone on the Spartans’ first two-point conversion try of the season, giving San Jose State a 29-16 lead after three quarters.