Cal Bears quarterback Chase Garbers gets into the end zone by just a corner’s worth in the first half against the UCLA Bruins on Sunday morning Nov 15th at the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles (AP News photo)

By Daniel Dullum
Sports Radio Service
Sunday, November 15, 2020

California spent its week preparing for a Pac-12 football game against Arizona State. The coronavirus pandemic provided the Golden Bears with a detour to Pasadena instead.

For their Pac-12 opener, the Golden Bears found themselves playing UCLA at the Rose Bowl on Sunday morning instead of facing ASU at Sun Devil Stadium on Saturday. UCLA romped past Cal 34-10.

The abrupt scheduling change was made due to COVID-19 issues at Arizona State, where a number of players and coaches, including head coach Herm Edwards, tested positive. The Sun Devils were unable to meet the conference minimum of 53 players in uniform.

The win evened the Bruins’ record at 1-1. Dorian Thompson-Robinson threw touchdown passes to Charles Njoku, Kyle Phillips and Chase Cota while completing 14 of 26 passes for 196 yards and one interception. Thompson-Robinson also ran for 52 yards and a touchdown.

Demetric Felton led UCLA with 107 rushing yards on 25 carries, and Brittain Brown added 71 yards and a touchdown. Greg Dulcich led the Bruins with three receptions for 80 yards.

The UCLA defense held the Bears to 54 rushing yards and 122 yards passing. Chase Garbers completed 18 of 33 passes with an interception and was sacked five times. Christopher Brown Jr. was Cal’s top rusher with 25 yards on eight carries.

Cal (0-1) opened the scoring at 11:28 of the first quarter with a Dario Longhetto 31-yard field goal. From there, it was all Bruins.

Thompson-Robinson’s 2-yard touchdown with just over a minute to play in the opening period put UCLA ahead to stay at 7-3. A 27-yard TD pass from Thompson-Robinson to Njoku extended the Bruins’ lead to 14-3.

Cal closed the gap to 14-10 on Garbers’ 8-yard touchdown run with 7:24 to play in the second quarter, but the Bruins responded with touchdown passes from Thompson-Robinson to Cota (6 yards) and Phillips (5 yards), giving UCLA a 27-10 halftime lead.

Brown’s 31-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter gave Cal a 24-point lead.

Cal travels to Oregon State (0-2) next Saturday.