STANFORD, Calif. - The California players listened quietly all week to the pregame talk about how powerful Stanford had a chance to go to the Rose Bowl.

The Golden Bears provided their emphatic answer in one of the most exciting and important Big Games in recent memory.

Shane Vereen ran for a career-high 193 yards and three touchdowns on 42 carries and Mike Mohamed intercepted a pass from Andrew Luck at the 3 with less than 2 minutes left as Cal beat No. 14 Stanford 34-28 Saturday.

“We’ve heard a lot of talk about, ’Oh, they’re going to go to the Rose Bowl,”’ Mohamed said. “We felt like they were overlooking us a little bit. For us to come out and to prove all these guys wrong, it feels good. And we’re keeping the Axe in Berkeley another year. You can’t get much better than that.”

And it’s tough to imagine a better Big Game than one that had Rose Bowl implications, memorable performances by Vereen and Stanford’s Heisman contender Toby Gerhart, curious coaching decisions and a most dramatic finish.

Gerhart ran for 136 yards, four touchdowns and carried defenders on a 29-yard reception that set up Stanford (7-4, 6-3) at the Cal 13 with less than 2 minutes left.

Luck then threw an incompletion on first down and was intercepted by Mohamed with 1:36 to go, setting off a wild celebration on the Cal sideline.

“It wasn’t a good enough throw,” Luck said. “I wish I had that one back. I could have done a lot of different things.”

Special feature Best rivalry? Which is the most intense matchup? NBCSports.com

After Kevin Riley took three knees, the Cal students rushed the field and Stanford Stadium as the Golden Bears (8-3, 5-3 Pac-10) won the coveted Axe for the seventh time in eight years under coach Jeff Tedford.

“It was mayhem,” Riley said. “People were jumping up on you. I was struggling to find my teammates. I think it’s the first time since Coach Tedford has been here that we were the underdogs. It was great.”

Stanford came into the game off two of its biggest wins, scoring 106 points in the back-to-back victories over nationally ranked Oregon and Southern California that put the Cardinal in position to win the conference title.

Stanford looked poised for another big win after jumping out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter. But the Golden Bears responded.

“All week long the talk was about how physical they are, how they were going to run the ball on us, things like that,” Tedford said. “Our motto all week was, ’We’re going to find out on the field.”’

The victory puts a bright spot on a mostly disappointing season for the Bears, who entered the season with hopes of a Rose Bowl bid or possible national title. That was dashed with blowout losses to Oregon and USC and the season looked lost when star tailback Jahvid Best was sidelined by a scary concussion in a loss two weeks ago against Oregon State.