By Barbara Mason
The California Bears (3-6) matched up with the North Carolina State Wolfpack (4-4) Saturday in a week-nine game at Carter-Finley Stadium. They will be looking for a better effort than their last game losing to SMU in a very disappointing second half of football after leading at the half.
The first quarter was an extremely slow start for the Cal Bears trailing 7-0 after the first fifteen minutes of this game. In the second quarter North Carolina scored a 43-yd field goal extending their lead to10-0. California scored their first touchdown of the day at 4:58 and with one second left on the clock in the first half kicked a 38-yd field goal to tie up this game 10-10.
The Wolfpack scored two touchdowns in the third quarter, the first one at 9:40 and the second at 0:11 to close out the third quarter. Going into the fourth quarter North Carolina had a 24-10 lead.
North Carolina State blew this game wide open in the fourth quarter. Another rushing score for the Wolfpack taking a 31-10 lead at 9:05. It was another disappointing second half of football for the California Bears. The final was 31-10 in favor of North Carolina State with the Bears dropping to a 3-6 season record
GAME RECAP
Unlike last week, the California Bears had a slow start in the opening quarter of this game. They could not get much going offensively or defensively. North Carolina’s first touchdown of the game was an explosive play; a CJ Bailey pass to Deandre Desinor for 49-yards. The PAT was good and the Wolfpack took a 7-0 lead.
North Caroling extended their lead at 9:28 with Kanoah Vinesett kicking a 43-yd field goal giving the Wolfpack a 10-0 lead. At 4:58 the Bears were finally up on the scoreboard with a JK Sagapolutele 30-yd strike to Chase Hendricks for the touchdown and the Bears were back in the game. As the clock began to run out on the first half, California’s Towns McGough kicked a 38-yd field goal to tie up this game 10-10.
Going into the third quarter the Bears were in this game with the score tied. North Carolina took back the lead minutes into the quarter. Bailey connected with Chance Robinson for 38 yards, the PAT was good and North Carolina had taken a 17-10 lead. The Wolfpack struck again just as the clock ran out on the third quarter. A rushing touchdown from Darius Johnson for two yards gave NC a 24-10 lead. It was a miserable quarter for the Bears with only 25 yards gained. Again penalties were a major factor for the Bears something they have struggled with all season among offensive and defensive struggles.
As the fourth got underway more penalties for Cal an unsportsmanlike for 15 yards. They now had 6 penalties today and coupled with the inability to not only run the ball but also stopping the run, the Bears were in trouble. NC blew this game wide open with another touchdown at 9:05 giving the Wolfpack a 31-10 lead. At 9:05 Davion Gause rushed through a gaping hole into the end zone for 6 yards and the score. With 7:43 left in the game, the Bears needed to play with tempo, they needed to play fast as if they were down to two minutes. The North Carolina defense was just too much for the Bears. Cal gave up the ball on downs with 7:33 left in the game and the Wolfpack took over on the Bears 44-yd line. This pretty much sealed the win for the North Carolina State Wolfpack 31-10, now with a 4-4 season
GAME NOTES
This game was simply a sloppy game for the California Bears. No discipline, poor offense, the inability to stop the run, interceptions, penalties; whatever could go wrong did go wrong. Another drastic difference between the first and second halves of games.
The Bears struggled with inconsistent offense, difficulty running the ball and defensive breakdowns. Throw in lack of discipline resulting in far too many penalties have hurt the team all season. They let the Wolfpack strike early giving quarterback CJ Bailey a field day. He finished with 192 yards and 2 touchdowns with no interceptions.
The Cal offense struggled to start the game. They went three-and-out on their first possession and were forced to punt on their next several drives. Again the Cal running game could not establish a consistent ground attack which put a lot of pressure on quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele. On top of it all the defense allowed too many rushing yards resulting in two touchdowns for the Wolfpack.
California quarterback JK Sagapolutele finished with 186 yards, 1 touchdown, and one interception. He was sacked 3 times Cal rushed for 73 yards and averaged 3.6 yards per play. Ashton League led the Bears with 29 yards receiving yards. Corey Hendricks received for 67 yards, 7 receptions and one touchdown.
In a nutshell, right now Cal has an inconsistent running game, no ground attack to speak of. It all falls to their quarterback and with so much trouble protecting their quarterback they continue to struggle on offense. The defense is not consistent with a lot of trouble stopping the run. In today’s game they converted 3 of 13 third-downs and that is a lowly 23%. They simply could not keep drives alive. There were no explosive plays at all for the Bears today while they gave up big plays defensively. Again the inability to make any adjustments when it all began to go south was puzzling. There are huge issues regarding the offensive line, the running game and the defensive secondary that need to be addressed.
Cal will now have a bye week and time to figure out who on this team is giving their heart and soul into every game and as for the rest of them a lot of questions. Who is competing in every game and who is not. In two weeks the Bears will take on Virginia. That game will take place at Scott Stadium November 14 with the start of the game still to be determined.
