Bears’ rally not enough to catch up

DAVIS 49, UNC 36

GREELEY» Jake Maier threw for 382 yards and four touchdowns and UC Davis defeated Northern Colorado 4936 on Saturday on the Bears’ homecoming.

UC Davis (41, 20 Big Sky) entered the fourth quarter leading 4210 before the Bears staged a rally. On in relief of Maier, Brock Johnson threw a 16yard score to Gabe Martinez for his first career touchdown to make it 4910 with 9:15 remaining.

For the second time in his career, the Aggies’ Wesley Preece caught three touchdowns, with just four receptions, while Keelan Doss caught 11 passes for 161 yards and a score.

Conor Regan threw for 387 yards and two touchdowns and Alex Wesley caught nine passes for 178 yards and a touchdown for UNC (06, 03). The Aggies piled up 524 yards of offense to 453 for the Bears.

Northern Colorado hasn’t won since a 420 victory over Cal Poly on Nov. 18, 2017. The Bears now have lost 12 of their last 13 games dating to Sept. 30 last year.

The Bears scored the game’s final 26 points to make it a twoscore contest. Regan was 14for20 with 238 yards and two touchdowns in the final 9:15 of play.

“Gameplanwise, we wanted to come out and run the ball to keep their offense off the field,’’ UNC coach Earnest Collins Jr. said. “We were doing that for the most part, but when you are giving up turnovers and not getting turnovers you should have, you can get behind quick.

“We had a couple of interceptions we dropped early that could have changed momentum, but dropped them, and it’s hard to overcome that and turning the ball over yourself.”