Northwestern State beats SE Louisiana 35-16

HAMMOND, La. (AP) — Paul Harris tied a career high with four touchdown passes as Northwestern State defeated Southeastern Louisiana in Southland Conference action on Saturday night.

The Demons (5-4, 4-1) jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter after Harris completed touchdown passes of 4, 3 and 1 yards to Tucker Nims, Jake Bryan and Bradley Brown, respectively.

Harris threw his fourth touchdown pass to Justin Aldredge on a 33-yard completion with 27 seconds left before the half. Harris completed passes to 11 different receivers.

Seth Sebastian kicked field goals of 24, 47 and 31 yards to pull the Lions (2-7, 1-4) to within 19 points, 28-9, at halftime.

Northwestern State extended its lead to 35-9 in the third after a 58-yard interception return for a score by Cortez Paige.

The Lions scored on a 58-yard touchdown pass from Brian Young to Brandon Collins with 6:59 left in the fourth quarter.

Fla. International beats La.-Monroe 42-35 in 2OT

MIAMI (AP) — Darriet Perry scored on a 17-yard run in the second overtime, and Florida International’s defense then held Louisiana-Monroe for a 42-35 win Saturday night.

Ashlyn Parker secured the win for Florida International (3-5, 3-1 Sun Belt) when he tackled receiver Luther Ambrose at the 8-yard line — four yards shy of a first down — on fourth-and-12.

T.Y. Hilton scored four Florida International touchdowns — two receiving, one rushing and one on a kickoff return.

Hilton tied the game in overtime at 35 when he scored on a 25-yard reverse. He returned a kickoff 95 yards to give FIU a 14-7 lead with 9:01 left in the first quarter. He had four receptions for 96 yards, scoring on 20- and 67-yard passes.

Louisiana-Monroe (4-5, 3-3) had 482 yards total offense, and Kolton Browning completed 27 of 38 passes for 339 yards with three touchdowns and one interception.

No. 10 Stanford beats No. 13 Arizona 42-17

STANFORD, Calif. (AP) — Andrew Luck threw for 293 yards and two touchdowns, leading No. 10 Stanford to a 42-17 victory in its highly anticipated showdown with 13th-ranked Arizona on Saturday night.

Stepfan Taylor added four short touchdown runs for the Cardinal (8-1, 5-1 Pac-10), who won easily in the first meeting with Arizona (7-2, 4-2) when both teams were ranked.

The Cardinal are enjoying their best season in 40 years and are alone in second place in the Pac-10, keeping alive their hopes for a Rose Bowl bid if they can win their final three games. Stanford would also need No. 1 Oregon to lose twice in order to win the conference or hope the Rose Bowl is not obligated to take a team from a non-automatic qualifying conference.

Pittsburgh beats Phoenix 4-3 in shootout

GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Brent Johnson was steady in replacing Marc-Andre Fleury, and Mark Letestu scored the only goal of a shootout to help the Pittsburgh Penguins rally for a 4-3 win over the Phoenix Coyotes on Saturday night.

Sidney Crosby had a goal and an assist, and the Penguins also got goals from Evgeni Malkin and Chris Kunitz to come back from an early 2-0 deficit. Crosby and Kris Letang were each stopped by Ilya Bryzgalov in the shootout, but Letestu beat him with a quick wrist shot for the winner.

Wojtek Wolski had his first goal and an assist, and Eric Belanger and Radim Vrbata each had goals for Phoenix. Johnson stopped Vrbata and Wolski in the shootout, and Lauri Korpikoski shot wide on the Coyotes’ final attempt.

Phoenix, coming off a 6-3 loss to Dallas on Friday, played without captain Shane Doan (lower body) and defenseman Ed Jovanovski (illness). Charged up by a rare big crowd of 14,642, the Coyotes didn’t seem to mind early. They chased Fleury from the net with two goals in the first 7 minutes.

But Pittsburgh, sluggish early after a loss to Anaheim on Friday night, rallied in the second period thanks to Johnson and a whiff by Coyotes defenseman Derek Morris that led to an easy goal for Crosby.

Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma has stuck with Fleury despite his struggles — and Johnson’s solid play — this season and had him in the lineup again against the Coyotes after the loss to the Ducks.

Belanger scored 2½ minutes in on a rush, taking a feed from Wolski and using a deke to beat Fleury to the near-side post. About 3 minutes later, Vrbata crashed his body into the net, and put the puck between Fleury’s pads, making it 2-0. The goal was upheld after a long video review.

Fleury was yanked right after the goal was allowed.

Pittsburgh had a shoot-while-falling-down goal by Crosby wiped out at the midpoint of the first period when Pascal Dupuis was called for interference during a scrum in Phoenix’s crease.

But Johnson kept turning away shots — including a glove-snatching save during a power play — and things got better quickly for the Penguins in the second period.

Crosby scored his ninth goal 1:16 in, scooping up a gaffe by Morris in front of his crease. Last season’s NHL’s goal leader had no trouble taking advantage and beating Bryzgalov gloveside.

Malkin tied it 3 minutes later, lifting in a tough-angle shot off the crossbar for his fourth of the season to tie it at 2-all.

The Coyotes went back up 3-2 on a shot by Wolski that caromed off Pittsburgh defenseman Paul Martin’s leg, then bounded past Johnson.

Pittsburgh picked up the pressure and tied it again with 33 seconds left in the period when Kunitz one-timed Letestu’s pass from behind the net just seconds after Phoenix escaped a two-man, short-handed situation.

NOTES: Phoenix has allowed six goals in the first period this season, second-best in the NHL to Boston’s three. … Fleury has been stuck on 149 career wins since beating Nashville on Oct. 21. … The Coyotes are 0-3-1 on the second of back-to-back games.