The north endzone had been the setting for a number of tragically close home losses for the Cardinal this year heading into Saturday’s Big Game against California.

There was the homecoming loss to TCU, which ended when Stanford’s last-minute drive — led by sophomore quarterback Tavita Pritchard fresh off his improbable triumph over USC — stalled at the TCU 18-yard line thanks to heavy pressure from the Horned Frogs’ defense. And just last week, a pair of dropped passes in the north endzone doomed the Cardinal’s chances against Notre Dame.

But against the Golden Bears (6-6, 3-6 Pac-10) on Saturday night, the roles were finally reversed, as Stanford’s defense held firm in front of the north endzone to preserve a thrilling 20-13 victory in the 110th Big Game. Faced with Cal’s potential game-tying drive in the waning moments of the fourth quarter, senior cornerback Nick Sanchez, playing his final game on the Farm, picked off Cal quarterback Nate Longshore’s pass at the Stanford eight-yard line to seal the Cardinal’s first Big Game victory since 2001, bringing the Stanford Axe back to campus for the first time in six years.

“As a defense, we live for those moments,” sophomore linebacker Clinton Snyder said of Cal’s last gasp effort. “Just trying to stop that team that’s knocking on the door is the greatest feeling in the world as a defense. That’s where you prove how good you are.”

Stanford (4-8, 3-6 Pac-10) won its first conference game at home — and only its second home game overall — since the opening of the new Stanford Stadium last year due, in large part, to the contributions of several key seniors who overcame adversity in their final season on the Farm to come up huge in their last collegiate games.

Sanchez, after struggling with injuries for most of the 2007 campaign, notched two interceptions, a pass defensed and a quarterback hurry. Senior wideout Mark Bradford, who lost his father only days before the USC upset, was the Cardinal’s leading receiver with five catches for 84 yards and a touchdown, making a spectacular 23-yard sideline grab for a first down on Stanford’s final drive to help kill the clock.

“I had no idea if the ball was going to me,” Bradford said of the fateful play. “I came off the ball the guy was sitting on the route and I gave him a good move off the line, [then] I looked back and I saw Tavita’s eyes light up. It’s one of those things, me and him just have a little connection, have a little chemistry. He just seems to love to find me in those big times, crunch times in games.”

Fellow senior receiver Evan Moore, who dropped one of the passes in the north endzone against Notre Dame last week, looked like his old self with four catches for three first downs and drew a pass interference penalty for a fourth. Senior kicker Derek Belch went 2-3 on field goal attempts after a dreadful 0-4 showing against the Irish.

And then there was senior quarterback T.C. Ostrander, who was named the starter in his last game at Stanford after an impressive showing in relief of Pritchard last week against Notre Dame. Ostrander lost his starting job when he suffered a seizure in the week before the Cardinal’s Oct. 6 win at USC, an injury which led to Pritchard’s rise to prominence in the offense. But the senior signal caller went 16-for-23 for 151 yards and a touchdown against Cal while splitting time with Pritchard, and was Stanford’s leading passer on the day.

“Right now I’m just elated,” Ostrander said in the locker room following the win. “I couldn’t have asked for anything better than this, to go out on this note, to bring the Axe back to where it belongs. Once everything slows down, I’ll probably kick back a little bit and think about the last five years and what they’ve meant to me, but for right now I’m on cloud nine.”

The Cardinal defense held firm all day against the hated Bears, limiting them to 5-for-17 on third down conversions and notching three turnovers and eight tackles for losses against a veteran Cal offense. Sophomore linebacker Clinton Snyder, junior linebacker Pat Maynor and sophomore safety Bo McNally led the way defensively for Stanford with a combined 25 tackles, 6.5 for loss, between them. Snyder set up Stanford’s first score of the day when he forced a Longshore fumble and then fell on the ball at the Bears’ 28-yard line.

In closing their year with a win, the Stanford seniors were left with a final brilliant picture of success in their minds. But for the rest of the Cardinal, there was hope that the victory could be as much about a bright future to come as it was about putting the recent forgettable seasons behind them.

“I would say our team has learned how to win — we won the Big Game, and this team has knocked down a lot of hurdles,” Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh said of his team’s effort following the victory. “The thing about our team is they go into every game expecting to win, and they were very confident coming into this game. They are the ones who have knocked down those hurdles and that’s a great springboard for us going into next year.”

NOTES:

— Thousands of jubilant students and fans stormed the field to celebrate with the victorious Cardinal players as the game clock expired. The goal post in the south endzone was dislodged but not torn down as police kept a careful eye on the madness.

— “That student section was filled an hour before the game,” Harbaugh said. “They were loud, they were into it the entire game, and I found myself among them at the end in the middle of the field and they were tremendous. It meant a lot.”

— As players and coaches gave interviews near midfield, cheering students held the Axe above their heads and chanted “We got the Axe!” long after the final whistle blew.

— The Bears’ loss in the 110th Big Game dropped them to 6-6 on the year after they lost six of their last seven games down the stretch.

— Stanford’s win was its first against Cal since 2001, and its first against Bears’ head coach Jeff Tedford in that same time span.

— Bradford finished his Stanford career with 169 receptions and 2,431 receiving yards, finishing in Stanford’s top five for both career stats.

— After winning this year’s Big Game, Stanford now leads the 110-year old rivalry — the 10th longest in college football — 55-44-11.