BEARS BREAK OUT
Players-only meeting motivates Cal in its first Pac-12 victory of the season
CORVALLIS, ORE. >> The Cal Bears held a players-only meeting on the eve of their game against Oregon State.
The Bears were still searching for their first conference win and had slumped with three straight losses. Seniors talked about how much the season meant to them, said defensive end Tevin Paul. The players took the talk to heart.
Saturday, on the legs of Patrick Laird and the arm of Chase Garbers, the Bears delivered a 49-7 victory. They hadn’t won a Pac-12 game on the road since a victory at Washington in 2015, a span of 14 games.
“I feel like it just really helped everyone out,” Paul said of the players-only meeting, “just trusting each other.”
Laird rushed for 193 yards and scored three touchdowns. Garbers, starting at quarterback in place of the turnoverprone Brandon McIlwain, passed for 234 yards and three touchdowns. He found Malik McMorris with a 3-yard scoring pass on Cal’s opening drive of the game, hit Laird with a 29-yard TD in the second quarter and connected with Kanawai Noa for a 24-yard score in the fourth quarter.
All was not rosy, however. The victory was marred by two targeting calls against Cal players that resulted ejections.
Safety Jaylinn Hawkins was ejected late in the first half after a helmet-to-helmet
hit on Oregon State quarterback Conor Blount. Blount left the game with a concussion. Defensive end Zeandae Johnson was ejected in the third quarter for a hit on Blount’s replacement, Jack Colletto.
“Totally unacceptable,” said Cal coach Justin Wilcox. “It’s not what we stand for as a program. It will be the first thing we talk about on Monday.”
The Beavers (1-5, 0-4 Pac-12) were just what Cal needed, even more than that players-only meeting. They have lost 13 conference games in a row. Their lone win this season came against Southern Utah on Sept. 8.
The Bears (4-3, 1-3) led 21-0 at halftime and scored on their first possession of the second half, going 78 yards on only four plays, one of them a 53-yard run by Laird. After OSU’s only
score, Cal answered with the 24-yard connection between Garbers and Noa. Laird scored on a 30-yard run in the fourth quarter to make it 42-7 and Josh Drayden closed the scoring with a 54-yard interception return in the final seconds.
• Cal linebacker Jordan Kunaszyk had 10 tackles, including eight solo. Kunaszyk had a career-high 22 tackles, including 14 solo, in the Golden Bears’ loss to UCLA last week. The last Cal player with as many tackles in a game was Jerrott Willard, who had 22 in a game against USC in 1992 . ... Cal had a season-high seven sacks.
• It was Laird’s sixth career game with 100-plus yards rushing. His career high of 214 in a single game was set against Oregon State last season. He finished with 241 all-purpose yards.
• OSU freshman Jermar Jefferson, who ranks fourth nationally with an average of 144.2 yards rushing per game, was in uniform and riding a bike on the sideline at the start. The team announced Jefferson had a mild hamstring strain and it was uncertain if he’d play, but he entered the game in the second quarter. He finished with 34 yards rushing.
• The Beavers revived their old Benny Beaver mascot with special homecoming uniforms. Benny, who wore a jaunty orange OSU hat, was on the team’s helmets back in 1973 and was part of the school’s identity from 1951-98.