After the game, a 52-40 win on the road against Cal, Oregon State’s 6’ 4” Junior QB DJ Uiagalelei said; “I’m not going to lie, I was feeling it today. I felt good. I got going from the jump. I was ready to go.” And boy was he! DJ connected on over 75% of his throws for 275 yards, 5 TD’s, and no interceptions with Sophomore TE Jack Velling the beneficiary of three of those and Junior Anthony Gould picking up 117 yards on just seven receptions—an average of 16.7 yards per catch. Senior WR Jesiah Irish and Junior Silas Bolden combined for 87 more of those and a TD each. On the ground the Beavers rushed 43 times for 203 yards with Sophomore RB Damien Martinez picking up almost half and Oregon State’s only rushing TD while averaging a little over five yards per carry.
After holding their opponents to under 15.6 points-per-game through the first five—5th in the nation in run defense—and knocking Utah off last week 14-7, Oregon State struggled in this one giving up a couple yards shy of 450 yards of total offense and about 25 points above their average. Beaver head coach Jonathan Smith took a philosophical approach in his comments afterwards saying; Hopefully we build some confidence knowing that we can win this way or we can play in a lower scoring game and find a way. You never know how each game is going to play out.” Cal’s Freshman QB Fernando Mendoza—Cal’s third starting QB of the season as head coach Justin Wilcox continues to search for answers—played well connecting on 21-of-32 for 207 yards, 2 TD’s and 1 pick while also rushing four times for another 41 yards. Freshman TE Jack Endries and Junior WR Taj Davis accounted for over half of Cal’s yards in the air with Endries and Senior RB Isaiah Ifanse accounting for both TD’s. Ifanse and Sophomore Jayden Ott also led the Golden Bears on the ground with a combined 24 attempts 171 of Cal’s 241 total rushing yards with Ifanse picking up two of their three TD’s and Freshman RB Javian Thomas the other.
Oregon State got out to an early lead after forcing Cal to turn the ball over on downs after they failed to convert a 4th and 1 on the Beaver 47 yard line. Nine plays and 53 yards later DJ Uiagalelei connected with Jack Velling in the end zone to go up 7-0. After holding the Beavers to a three-and-out Cal would finally get on the scoreboard as well, kicking a field goal after getting bogged down in the red zone to tighten the score to 7-3 with just two seconds gone in the 2nd Qtr. But just two minutes later, after a 65 yard kickoff and 59 yard return, Beaver Freshman backup QB Aidan Chiles would connect with Junior WR Silas Bolden on an 11 yard TD pass to give Oregon State a 14-3 lead–but it wouldn’t last for long. Aided by an Oregon State fumble, Cal would score TD’s on their next two possessions to go up 17-14 halfway through the 2nd Qtr. Not willing to go into the locker room trailing, Jack Velling would become the recipient of his 2nd TD pass from Uiagalelei at the end of an 11 play 75 yard drive to put Oregon State back up 21-17 at the break.
The third quarter was like the middle rounds of a heavy-weight fight that’s clearly going 15 rounds with both opponents scoring points every time they got the ball. In this case the Beavers drew first blood on a three play 50 yard drive in just 1:20 to go up 28-17 followed by a Cal 10 play 75 yard drive to put seven of their own up on the board to make it 28-24. Not missing a beat Oregon State came right back on a 9 play 66 yard drive and Jack Velling’s third TD of the day from Uiagalelei to make it 35-24. Eight plays and 75 yards later the Golden Bears would be back in the end zone—this time adding a two-point conversion to pull within a field goal at 35-32 going into the 4th Qtr. But that’s where the back-an-forth would end. Aided by a fumble and an interception, the Beavers would score back-to-back-to-back TD’s in the 4th Qtr and with just 2:25 minutes left in the game had an insurmountable lead at 52-32. Cal would come back and score one more time including a two-point conversion to give us the 52-40 final score. Oregon State heads back home to Corvallis to host UCLA while Cal hits the road to Salt Lake City to take on Utah.