Cal wins third straight against rival Stanford
>> Stanford couldn't knock Cal quarterback Fernando Mendoza out of the 126th Big Game and it couldn't prevent the visiting Bears from keeping alive their bowl aspirations.
Mendoza, helped off the field midway through the third quarter after being hit in the head, returned to throw his third touchdown pass and the Bears beat Stanford for the third straight season, posting a 27-15 victory Saturday in front of an announced sellout crowd of 52,972 under sometimes rainy skies.
“The best hour of the year for me is this,” Cal coach Justin Wilcox said on the field after the game, surrounded by fans. “This game means so much to so many people, people who have been coming to this game for 30, 40, 70 years.”
Cal (5-6, 3-5 Pac-12) will travel to Pasadena next Saturday to face UCLA in their final Pac-12 game ever with a chance to become bowleligible with a victory. The Bruins (7-4, 4-4) beat rival USC 38-20 on Saturday.
Stanford (3-8, 2-7) faces Notre Dame at Stanford Stadium next Saturday, hoping to avoid the distinction of being the only FBS team with a winless home record this season. The Cardinal, under firstyear coach Troy Taylor, is 0-6 at home.
“We weren't bowl-eligible going into this game so the Cal rivalry is the season-defining moment,” said Stanford kicker Josh Karty. “It really stings for us.”
Mendoza, the redshirt freshman who was installed as Cal's starter in Week 6, finished 24 for 36 for a career-high 294 yards and three TDs. Two of his TDs went to Trond Grizzell.
“I told him pregame that
I felt good,” said Grizzell, who finished with seven catches for 136 yards. “To have a game like that is amazing.”
“I was just along for the ride,” Mendoza said.
Jaydn Ott carried the ball 36 times, the most of his two-year career, and wound
up with 166 rushing yards and a touchdown. He declined a second touchdown, taking a knee at the 5-yard line to run out the clock.
Ott now has 1,182 rushing yards this season.
Stanford quarterback Ashton Daniels passed for 188 yards and one touchdown but was a bigger thorn in Cal's side as a runner, picking up 68 rushing yards. The Bears did a good job limiting Stanford star wide receiver Elic Ayomanor, who had just three catches for 43 yards.
While Wilcox improved to 4-3 in the Big Game, Taylor remains winless in the game as a player or coach. His Cal teams during a playing career in the late 1980s were 0-3-1 vs. Stanford, although he was injured and did not play in two of the losses.
The Bears seemingly took control of this game when Ott powered in from the 1-yard line for a 21-6 lead with 5:45 left in the third quarter.
The touchdown, following a 12-play, 67-yard drive, appeared costly. Mendoza was flattened on a hit by Stanford linebacker Tristan Sinclair, and the Cal QB remained on the ground for a couple of minutes before being helped off the field with 6:32 left.
After an official review, Sinclair was flagged for targeting, disqualifying him and setting up Cal with a first down at the 13-yard line.
Ott ran 12 yards to the 1 on second down, then scored on the next play.
“He's our rock, not just on defense, but probably the whole team,” Taylor said. “It was an emotional loss.”
Nevertheless, Stanford answered immediately, covering 75 yards in three plays, including Daniels' perfectly placed 59-yard TD pass to freshman Tiger Bachmeier with 4:25 left in the period. The Cardinal failed on a two-point try, with officials overturning the call that Daniels scored on a run attempt.
Mendoza returned to action on the next series but Cal went nowhere and Stanford got a third field goal from Karty.