Fans of both California and Stanford know the football edition of the long-running rivalry between the schools by only one name: The Big Game.

The teams first met in 1892 — which Stanford won, 15-10 — and among the legendary moments it has produced is what is arguably the greatest play in college football history, simply known as "The Play."

Cal and Stanford will meet for the 112th time Saturday at Stanford Stadium and among the big bodies in the trenches for the Cardinal (7-3, 6-2 Pac-10) will be 2007 Campbell High graduate Matthew Masifilo.

Masifilo, a 6-foot-3, 285-pound sophomore defensive lineman, has made just 10 tackles in the six games he's appeared in this season, but his play last week made up for all his lost time.

In Stanford's convincing 55-21 road win at USC Saturday, Masifilo intercepted a Matt Barkley pass in the first quarter, which Toby Gerhardt recycled into a 1-yard touchdown run six plays later. That made the score 14-0 after the first quarter.

"The running back tipped it and I just reacted to it," Masifilo said. "It was set up by our defensive line. They put pressure on him to force a bad throw."

Late in the second quarter, Masifilo got to Barkley again, this time on a sack that resulted in a 5-yard loss. The Trojans went for it on fourth down, but Barkley's pass fell incomplete and Stanford ran out the clock to take a 21-7 halftime lead.

USC scored on Joe Mc-Knight's 28-yard run in the third quarter to cut Stanford's lead to 28-21, but the Cardinal scored 27 unanswered fourth-quarter points to run away with it.

Stanford, in its third season under head coach Jim Harbaugh, has beaten USC twice in the past three years.

"We're a different team than when we beat them two years ago," Masifilo said. "This time we expected to win. But right now we're fully focused on Cal. Two years ago we let our feelings carry over to the next week and we got dominated by TCU."

Masifilo, who was part of Harbaugh's first recruiting class, credits his coach for changing the team's mental approach.

"We've become a team now where we expect to win every game, whereas in his first year we wouldn't know how to handle big wins because we weren't consistent enough yet," Masifilo said. "It's definitely rewarding to see that things are happening. We bought into what he told us and it's paying off for us now, but it definitely keeps you humbled and hungry to win."

Masifilo also took notice of fellow Stanford student Michelle Wie's weekend. Wie won the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Guadalajara, Mexico Sunday for her first win as a professional golfer.

"It was a great weekend for Stanford sports," Masifilo said.

Another famous golfer will return to Stanford this week as Tiger Woods, who attended the school from 1994-1996, will serve as an honorary captain for The Big Game. Woods is expected to address the team before the game.

"It's definitely an honor to have an alumni who has gone on to do great things come back and share in The Big Game," Masifilo said.

The Cardinal, who are currently in second place in the Pac-10 and already bowl-eligible, finish with Notre Dame at home on Nov. 28, but Masifilo knows not to look past Saturday.

"We're approaching it like a championship game, like it's our Super Bowl," he said. "We're focused on this game only. We've cleared our minds of USC and we're putting everything on this game."

Stanford leads the all-time series, 55-45-11. Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m. Hawai'i time.