By Morris Phillips

BERKELEY, CA–After overcoming adversity voluminous enough to pen a short novel, Coach Justin Wilcox elected to hand his own club one last helping of adversity, a two-point conversion attempt to win or lose on the final play of an exhausting, two overtime game.

In a game where the Bears trailed Arizona by two touchdowns in the third quarter, the final play would be Cal’s only chance to steal one they seemingly had lost much earlier.

But Wilcox’s gamble failed when Ross Bowers pass to Jordan Duncan was broken up by the Wildcats’ Colin Schooler underneath the goalpost, allowing Arizona to escape with a 45-44 victory. Pegged with an agonizing loss, the Bears could at least claim unity in support of Wilcox’s uncommon choice.

“I felt like that was the best choice for us to win,” Wilcox said. “In the end, we didn’t play well enough–especially on defense–to win the game.”

Bowers supported Wilcox’s choice, saying that his indecision–thinking he could run for the conversion before hastily throwing flat footed to Duncan in the back of the end zone–was the real reason Wilcox and the Bears weren’t gutsy winners.

Vic Enwere, whose second and third efforts on a fourth down touchdown run prior to the game’s final play, appreciated the decision as well, saying “that says he has confidence in us. I appreciate that.”

Wilcox explained that his defense’s gassed play in the first two overtimes greatly influenced the decision to go for the win, and forgo a third overtime. After Cal scored first in the extra period, Arizona’s Zach Green rumbled 25 yards to tie it on the Wildcats’ initial, offensive play.

The Bears then allowed a second score in just two plays, as brilliant Arizona signal caller Khalil Tate bought time rolling to his right before finding Bryce Wolma near the goal line for a 45-38 lead.

For Wilcox, the lightning scores were enough. Already Cal had overcome the loss of defensive playmaker Devante Downs, lost for the remainder of the season due to injury, and survived the Wildcats’ run game that produced 345 yards in regulation. How could Cal bring an end to the evening for Tate, and steal the win?

Don’t expose his defense one more time, Wilcox reasoned.

Tate, the instant Heisman candidate, would top 700 yards rushing over a three-game stretch after hanging 137 against Cal. His 76-yard run to break the 7-7, second quarter tie was simply ridiculous, and as advertised. First Tate scrambled to his right, but quickly circled back to his left with linebacker Alex Funches seemingly in position to close. But Tate ran past Funches and headed downfield like a blur with four Cal defenders in his vapor trail as he crossed the goal line. How Tate blew past four defenders needed no explanation. In the two, previous weeks, Tate ran for touchdowns from 71 an 75 yards and four, other shorter distances. This second quarter run was merely the capper.

“He’s a really good player, really fast, really explosive,” said linebacker Jordan Kunaszyk. “We missed a couple of plays on him and he made us pay for it. Credit to Arizona. Credit to him.”

While Tate was his own wave of adversity, it was just a slice of what Cal was forced to digest Saturday night. Starting left tackle Patrick Mekari, the starter for Cal’s first seven games, was declared a late scratch, necessitating a shuffling of the line before kickoff.

Still Cal started fast, determined to impact the scoreboard first, they marched for a touchdown on their opening drive. Patrick Laird capped it with the clever run of Bowers’ Statue of Liberty handoff. The opening drive saw the Bears counter their tendencies, and keep the Wildcats’ defense off balance.

But Arizona recovered, first avoiding a huge fumble by way of a replay that captured Wolma’s catch and fumble came after he was down. Instead of Cal being in position to increase their lead to double digits, Arizona responded with a game-tying drive.

Tate’s big run would follow, then three Cal penalties would aid in a third Arizona touchdown drive at the outset of the second quarter. Cal trailed 21-7 with 11:20 remaining in the second quarter.

In the third quarter Tate was at it again, buying time with his feet before finding Shun Brown for a 56-yard scoring pass. Once again, Cal trailed by two touchdowns, 28-14 with 7:22 remaining in the third.

Offensively, the Bears were stingy with ball possession, running 35 more plays than the Cats, but without the string of big plays compiled by Arizona.  All four Cal touchdown drives in regulation consumed at least 11 plays.

Kicker Matt Anderson capped Cal’s comeback with a 52-yard field goal to tie with 3:22 remaining. The kick came after Wilcox initially chose to attempt a conversion on 4th-and-4. After a timeout, Wilcox reversed, and put his faith in Anderson.

With the loss, Cal falls to 4-4, 1-4.  They travel to Colorado next Saturday where an 11 a.m. kickoff with the Buffaloes awaits them.