No. 24 Cal 34, Washington State 28

The Cougars added another score to push the lead to 28-20, but two touchdowns before the start of the fourth quarter would provide the Bears all the cushion they would need.

No one really thought Saturday’s meeting between No. 24 California and Washington State would echo last year’s record-breaking, scoreboard-shattering 60-59 performance.

Cal struck first in the half when WSU’s fake punt try blew up. A fumble by Lawler on the Bears’ next possesion set the Cougars up in plus territory again but a crunching sack by McClure on third down pushed WSU’s field goal attempt back and Erik Powell missed the 40-yarder to re-energize the partisan Cal crowd.

A week after entering the national rankings for the first time in five years, the Bears figure to take a step forward on those charts on the strength of their first 5-0 start since 2007. Most memorably, they allowed then-Washington State quarterback Connor Halliday to throw for an NCAA-record 734 yards. He and the Bears’ defense righted the ship in the second half.

Washington State was in position to reverse that trend after Falk threw a four-yard touchdown pass to Gabe Marks midway through the third quarter and Kenny Lawler lost a fumble on Cal’s ensuing possession.

“I think we improved”, Falk said.

Stefan McClure then changed the tide on a safety blitz that gave Cal one of its seven sacks on the day. “There’s going to be times where we could have taken control of this game, just a play here and there”.

WSU led 21-13 at halftime, only to see the Golden Bears scored 21 points in the third quarter.

But the Golden Bears pulled out a surprise onside kick that caught the Cougars by surprise.

“Totally different player”, Dykes said of White, who leads the Bears with two interceptions. One statistic that has stood out in the early going is his yards per attempt average, which has jumped from 7.8 in 2014 up to 9.3 in four games this year.

The Cougars tried to lateral their way to the end zone on the game’s final play, but were only able to get to midfield before being tackled. The two first met three years ago in the North Coast Section Division III championship game, won 31-28 by Goff’s Marin Catholic High in a rainstorm. But Goff also ran for 77 yards, including a 30-yard touchdown.

Goff’s two-point pass to Bryce Treggs was ruled out of bounds and incomplete, but the call was reversed on review and the Bears led by six.

Even Saturday, when it trailed by two touchdowns against a Washington State team still tainted by a loss to Portland State, Cal displayed a few of the attributes that make it so risky. Falk tried to throw a deep pass, but Drew raced over to make the interception.