Cal brings the Axe back to Berkeley, defeats Stanford 24-20

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from sfgate.com; California running back Christopher Brown Jr. (34) celebrates after scoring a touchdown against Stanford during the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Nov. 23, 2019 in Stanford, Calif.

By Jeremy Harness

STANFORD – Shortly after 4pm PST, Stanford Stadium became a sea of navy blue and yellow, a sight that had not been seen in a very long time.

Considering the fact that Cal has not won the Big Game since 2009, it’s easy to understand the excitement of the Golden Bear students, fans and alumni after a dramatic 24-20 win over Stanford in the 122nd playing of this rivalry game.

After Stanford took a 20-17 lead on Ryan Sanborn’s 44-yard field goal with 2:23 remaining, sophomore quarterback Chase Garbers led the Cal offense down the field and capped the 75-yard drive when he escaped the pocket and beat the Stanford defense to the corner of the end zone.

Cal’s defense then stopped Stanford cold on fourth-and-one on the ensuing possession to secure a monumental win for the Cal football program, which had not have much to cheer about for the past decade until this season.

“To get a win, to get the Axe back and what that means for the players and our institution, it’s a big deal,” Cal coach Justin Wilcox said. “It’s huge for our program, for the development of our program.”

Garbers, who has suffered assorted injuries this year – including a separated shoulder that sidelined him for much of this season – and was just cleared to return to the field a few days ago – completed 20 of his 30 passes for 285 yards and a touchdown.

He did more damage with his feet, as he also led the Golden Bears with 72 rushing yards, including the game-winning scamper.

“This was Chase Garbers’ game,” Stanford coach David Shaw said. “We couldn’t stop him. He makes a difference in the games he plays in, with his legs.

“We missed about three sacks today,” he continued. “You can’t win games if you let the quarterback out like that.”

The play of Nikko Remigio, Cal’s leading receiver, also proved to be crucial down the stretch. He caught nine passes for 157 yards and a fourth-quarter touchdown.

Saturday was a fatal blow to Stanford, not only in losing the Stanford Axe but also to their chances of getting into a postseason bowl game for the 11th straight year. The Cardinal (4-7, 3-6 Pac-12) needed to win Saturday’s game, as well as its final game is against none other than No. 16 Notre Dame next Saturday.

“There should be some pain involved,” Shaw said. “I feel bad for our seniors. I feel like we let our seniors down. It’s something that we’re going to have to live with for 364 days.”

Cal (6-5, 3-5 Pac-12), on the other hand, became bowl eligible with Saturday’s win, and have done so in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2008-09.

In the first two minutes of the game, it appeared that Stanford would not have much of an issue, particularly after the Cal secondary blew its zone coverage on the left side of the field and allowed junior quarterback Davis Mills to find an uncovered Donald Stewart to catch a 40-yard touchdown to give Stanford an early 7-0 lead.

Mills started out sharp, as he completed 16 of his 19 throws for 183 yards and that early touchdown. He finished with 283 yards on 26-of-35 passing, but he was intercepted twice early in the second half, and that seemed to slow down the Cardinal attack significantly.

Cal had an answer late in the first quarter, as the Golden Bears drove 90 yards. Christopher Brown, Jr. punctuated things with a 7-yard touchdown run to tie the game.

After the two teams traded field goals, the Golden Bears got the ball late in the second quarter and proceeded to convert a pair of long third downs. The drive came to a screeching halt when a pass from Garbers to receiver Jordan Duncan, which would have put the ball at Stanford’s 2-yard line, was called back by a holding penalty.

Stanford’s defense eventually held, and when Jovan Swann blocked the ensuing field-goal attempt, the two teams went into their respective locker rooms at halftime tied at 10-10.

The Cardinal defense tightened up again to start the second half and gave the offense a short field late in the third quarter. The Cardinal marched down the field and took a 17-10 lead when Cameron Scarlett went horizontal for a 1-yard touchdown plunge and stayed that way for a moment, as one of his offensive linemen ended up holding him like a groom holding a bride.

Midway through the fourth quarter, Cal got its offense back on track, with receiver Nikko Remigio being the key. Remigio got behind the Cardinal defense for a 40-yard hookup, and three plays later, Garbers found him in the back of the end zone to even the score.

The Cardinal then took the ball and came within inches of a touchdown when Mills’ pass was a bit too high for tight end Colby Parkinson in the back of the end zone. The Cardinal settled for Sanborn’s field goal before Garbers’ heroics on the ensuing drive.

“It’s awesome,” senior linebacker Evan Weaver said. “It would have been (nice) to do it in Berkeley, but to do it here, it’s even better. Just to take it away from them on their field, and to see all those sad fans, it’s perfect.”

NHL podcast with Matt Harrington: Pens get go-ahead goals from McCann and Marino for win; Sens’ Chabot, Ennis and Duclair score in win; plus more

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photo from nj.com: New Jersey Devils’ Jack Hughes (86) brings the puck up ice as Pittsburgh Penguins’ Chad Ruhwedel (2) defends during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Friday, Nov. 22, 2019, in Pittsburgh.

On the NHL podcast with Matt:

#1 Only two games in the NHL Friday night. The Pittsburgh Penguins Jared McCann and John Marino both scored goals in the third period against New Jersey on Friday night that got the Pens past New Jersey for a 4-1.

#2 The Pens’ Jake Guentzel scored his 11th goal to lead Pittsburgh in scoring and Dominik Kahun also scored his sixth goal of the season against the Devils on Friday.

#3 The Ottawa Senators’ Thomas Chabot picked up a goal and assist and Anders Nilsson stopped 30 shots as the Senators picked up a home ice win over the visiting New York Rangers 4-1.

#4 The Senators’ Logan Brown, Tyler Ennis, and Anthony Duclair picked a goal each in the Senators’ win. This was the Senators first three goal win of the season.

#5 The New York Islanders, who play in San Jose tonight, are the hottest team in the NHL at 16-3-1. What are some of the strengths you would point to that make them the NHL’s best?

Matt does the NHL podcast each Saturday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

San Jose Sharks podcast with Mary Lisa Walsh: Sharks face toughest team in NHL on Saturday night in Isles

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Photo credit: fearthefin.com

On the Sharks podcast with Mary Lisa:

#1 The San Jose Sharks’ win on Thursday night just getting by the Vegas Golden Knights 2-1 gave the Sharks seven wins in their last eight games.

#2 The Sharks, who won by a goal, got it from their captain Logan Couture, who scored it in overtime at 3:20

#3 The Sharks got their first goal from Timo Meier at 1:26 in the first period to open things up against the Knights.

#4 Talk about the job that goaltender Aaron Dell did stopping the Knights with stopping 37 out of 38.

#5 Sharks host the New York Islanders, who are 16-3-1, The Isles are coming off a win against the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3.

Mary Lisa is a beat writer for the Sharks and does Sharks podcasts each Saturday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

 

Podcast: The Fantasy Football Doctors NFL Week 12 – playoffs are coming!

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your hosts: Dr. Vasu Vaddiparty and Dr. Charlie O

 

It’s the final bye week of the season – you have holes in your lineup to fill

Jared Goff is a fantasy bust – who should replace him with?

Is Tom Brady worth a start this Sunday?

Look for the 49ers to rush the ball on Sunday night: start Coleman

Start every Browns player versus Miami

Nick Foles and Ryan Tannehill are worthy of starts

If you don’t start Russell Wilson, we will ban you from Fantasy Football!

Advice to help you win – push play now!!!

 

Warriors’ 4th quarter rally falls short as they lose to the Jazz 113-109

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Photo credit: nba.com/warriors

By Jerry Feitelberg

The Golden State Warriors lost their 14th game of the year Friday night as the Utah Jazz beat them 113-109. The Warriors, who lost to the Dallas Mavericks by 48 points two nights ago, played well in the first quarter. They fell behind in the second and third quarters, but late in the fourth quarter, they went on a 21-6 run to make the game closer. Unfortunately, it was too little, too late.

The Warriors, with eight players available, were competitive in the first quarter. They finished the period trailing by two 30-28. In the second quarter, the Jazz outscored them 35-23 to end the first half leading 65-51.

The Jazz increased the lead to 18 as they continued to outplay the short-handed Warriors. The score after three quarters was 90-72. It looked as if the Jazz was cruising to a comfortable victory. With the score at 100-80, the Warriors found their mojo and went on a 21-6 run to close within 5 points 106-101. The Jazz regrouped and were able to hold off the Warriors to secure the 113-109 win.

Game Notes: The Warriors had seven players in double-figures Friday. Alec Burks led the team with 20 points. Ky Bowman and Glenn Robinson each had 17. Bowman made 3 threes in six tries. Omari Spellman had 18, Marquese Chriss 10, Jordan Poole 13, and Eric Paschall had 12 points and 7 boards. Willie Cauley-Stein had just 1 bucket. His bucket came at the end of the 21-6 run in the fourth quarter.

Utah’s leading scorers were Donavan Mitchell with 30, Mike Conley with 27, Bojan Bogdanovich with 17 and Emmanuel Mudiay with 11. Big man Rudy Gobert scored just 8 points, but he was a force on defense. He recorded 19 rebounds and blocked 7 shots.

Due to the discovery of a suspicious package at the Arena in Salt Lake City, all the players and coaches had to leave the building immediately after the conclusion of the game. Many fans had left early as the Jazz had a big lead and were not on hand to witness the Warriors make a charge late in the game.

Up Next: The Warriors’ record is now a woeful 3-14. The Jazz improved to 10-5. The Warriors return home to play the Oklahoma City Thunder Monday night at the Chase Center. The game will start at 7:30 pm.

Cold in New York: Bears score season-low in 62-45 loss to No. 22 Texas

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By Morris Phillips

Being a work in progress isn’t necessarily pretty. It wasn’t for the Bears in their two cold-shooting performances at Madison Square Garden.

Cal fell to No. 22 Texas in the 2K Empire Classic consolation game 62-45 on Friday, while shooting 36 percent from the field. The 45 points and their shooting percentage were season lows.

Coach Mark Fox’s premonition to have his club forgo perimeter shots given their opponent and their compressed schedule was smart thinking. But it didn’t benefit Cal, they cut down on the attempts, but still missed seven of the eight 3-pointers they took.

“It’s our fourth game in eight days, our second game in under 24 hours,” Fox said. “I didn’t feel like today would be a good 3-point shooting day for either team. I think we anticipated it would probably be a game where 3s are hard to come by.”

Shaka Smart’s Longhorns had a part in Cal’s cold shooting. One night after allowing Georgetown 45 points after halftime–and being outscored by 21 points–Texas made defense a point of emphasis. The bigger, more experienced Longhorns weren’t necessarily disruptive, blocking three shots and creating three steals, but they gave Cal fits by simply contesting shots and rebounding the misses.

“Today we responded from that loss last night,” said Texas forward Jericho Sims, who was one of four Longhorns’ starters to score in double figures. “I learned that we’re a gritty team and we just got to keep the strong identity.”

Texas certainly didn’t take control by making shots, as their 41 percent shooting wasn’t much better than the Bears. But they seized control with the outcome in doubt, starting the second half on an 18-9 run that stretched their lead to 13 points with 12:38 remaining. Seven different Longhorns had baskets in the run, as the Longhorns did a better job than Cal of sharing the basketball. Texas finished with 19 assists on 26 made baskets.

For Cal, the trip to New York to face top-ranked Duke and Texas was a reality check after their 4-0 start against lesser competition. Defensively, they were engaged, but did little offensively. Matt Bradley led the Bears with 22 points on Friday, and he registered as the only Cal scorer in double figures in either game, which shows were Cal needs to improve.

“We’ll use it hopefully as a great lesson in how we have to grow and change and improve. If we use it the right way, this weekend can be very productive for us,” Fox said.

Cal resumes its schedule on Tuesday when UC Davis visits Haas Pavilion.

49ers Preview: Can They Overcome Injuries?

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Photo credit: ninersnation.com

By: Joe Lami

The toughest stretch of the season is here for the San Francisco 49ers and will give some clarity as to how elite the NFC leaders are. Over the next three weeks, their opponents’ combined records are 24-6 as all three appear like playoff locks. They start this critical stretch, hosting the Green Bay Packers on Sunday Night Football.

With the game now flexed into the primetime slot, the entire country will get to find out how real the Niners are. Injuries continue to be the biggest concern heading into the weekend for the red and gold against their toughest opponent thus far.

Joe Staley will miss a minimum of two weeks with a broken finger, but rookie Justin Skule has been an incredible surprise protecting Garoppolo’s blind side so far.

Matt Breida’s nagging ankle injury has held him off the practice field once again this week. It appears Tevin Coleman, Raheem Mostert, and Jeff Wilson Jr. will fueling San Francisco’s running attack come Sunday.

Robbie Gould is expected to miss his third-straight game, but Chase McLaughlin has connected on 4-of-5 as a Niner and will be depended on again, come Sunday. His lone miss was the overtime shank against the Seahawks.

Dee Ford’s absence will leave the most significant question mark for San Francisco. His quad injury will leave him out and will re-structure how the D-line is set-up. Arik Armstead has had an outstanding year thus far, leading the team with eight sacks, but how will he perform lining up on the edge?

Both Deebo Samuel and Emmanuel Sanders are questionable, giving hope that Garoppolo will have weapons at wide-out.

More importantly, Kittle got back onto the practice field in a non-contact jersey on Thursday and Friday. His status will be a game-time decision, according to Shanahan, but leaves optimism that he’s making his return. Kittle’s absence has been missed most, surprisingly on the run game, as the Niners’ rushing attack has dipped from 4.9 yards per rush to 3.5 without him on the field.

Aside from injuries, the match-up favors the Niners on paper. Their biggest challenge will be finding a way to slow down Aaron Rodgers, which easier said than done. Rodgers enters Sunday’s contest with a 17 TD to 2 INT ratio, third in the NFL, and hasn’t thrown a pick in 138 attempts, but San Francisco owns the #1 pass defense in the league and has forced the fourth-most picks in the league.

The 49ers have the most elite pass rush in the league. If they’re able to get to Rodgers, that’ll be their best chance to forcing him into mistakes.

Green Bay brings in the #2 red-zone offense against the #1 red-zone defense. Will San Francisco’s defense continues to show the bend, don’t break attitude they’ve had all year or will the dam finally burst?

Expect a massive run attack from the 49ers. Green Bay brings in the 25th defense in the league. San Francisco is set-up for a field day; they’ve been averaging 225.8 yards per game against bottom ten rush defenses.

Kittle returning to the line up brings more firepower to it. When Kittle’s been in the lineup, San Francisco is averaging 4.9 yards per carry, but without him, they’ve only been averaging 3.5 yards per carry.

Eagles take down the Barracuda 4-1

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Photo credit: @sjbarracuda

By Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The San Jose Barracuda are trying to stay afloat through stormy waters. They put forth a better effort from the other night against Tucson but still ended up on short end of the stick of a 4-1 victory by the Colorado Eagles on Friday evening at the SAP Center.

With the win, Colorado has now won two of their last three games after splitting a two-game series with the Bakersfield Condors last weekend. For San Jose, their woes continue with back-to-back losses and eight out of their last nine games.

Colorado (9-7-0-0) drew first blood in the first period. The Eagles sustained pressure in the ‘Cuda zone as Mark Alt kept the puck in and fed a pass over to Erik Condra. Condra skated near the right slot when he threw a shot on net that was tipped in by Sheldon Dries for his seventh goal of the season at the 6:29 mark.

Despite outshooting the Eagles 11-9 and having some good scoring chances late, the ‘Cuda went into the first intermission down by a goal in a penalty-free opening 20 minutes.

“It’s just tough right now,” said ‘Cuda head coach Roy Sommer. “We make a mistake and it’s in (the back of) our net. That’s kind how things are going for us right now.”

Colorado doubled its lead just 32 seconds to start the third period. Nick Henry centered a pass from the left faceoff circle over to Julien Nantel, who was all alone camped out just to the right of the crease. After his inital shot was saved by ‘Cuda goalie Andrew Shortridge, a Quebec native, put away the rebound chance for fourth goal of the season.

San Jose (5-10-0-1) cut the deficit in half on the power play. From the point, Jeremy Roy fed a pass over to Noah Gregor, who skated in and from the left slot wired a wrist shot that beat Eagles goalie Adam Werner, who was screened on the play by Alex True, for his second goal of the season at the 13:32 mark. Maxim Letunov was credited with the secondary assist.

Gregor’s goal sent the Tank into a frenzy of stuffed animals being thrown onto the ice in the annual Teddy Bear Toss Night the ‘Cuda have put on since moving to Silicon Valley from Worcester, Massachusetts five years ago.

“Yeah, it was cool,” said Gregor when asked how it felt to play Santa Claus for one night. “Teddy bear toss games are fun, fun for the fans. It was nice to get the one goal for myself and see the teddies fly (on to the ice).”

Shots were even at 10-10 in the middle frame. One of them Shortridge could have been charged with grand theft when he made a point blank save on Nantel with just over 11 minutes remaining that helped shift the momentum in San Jose’s favor.

San Jose had a golden opportunity to even the game midway through the third period when both Ty Lewis and Kevin Connauton went to the penalty box 63 seconds apart. However, the ‘Cuda sqaundered the 5-on-3 power play as Colorado killed it off and seized back control of the game.

“The bottom line is the five-on-three we don’t score on,” said Sommer. “That was the game right there. That’s kind of (opportunity) what you wait for and (we) didn’t get it done.”

Colorado iced the game with two empty-net goals with under a minute remaining in the game. First, Jacob McDonald fired a long shot from inside his own defensive zone after winning a battle along the boards for his fifth goal at the 19:16 mark. Then, Michael Joly won a race to a loose puck and put the biscuit in the basket for his fifth goal at the 19:31 mark.

Werner stopped 35 of the 36 shots he faced to earn his sixth win of the season. Shortridge made 23 saves on 25 shots in their losing effort.

GAME NOTES: San Jose was 1/5 on the power play. Colorado was 0/2.

Eagles forward Josh Dickinson left the game with a lower body injury early in the first period.

Fisticuffs! San Jose’s Jacob Middleton and Colorado’s Dan Renouf dropped the gloves in a fight that had two hits, one by Middleton and Renouf hitting the ice after just one punch.

San Jose Sharks forward Barclay Goodrow scored the first ever Teddy Bear Toss goal when he was a member of the ‘Cuda back on November 7th, 2015.

The announced crowd was 3,923.

UP NEXT: The Barracuda conclude their four-game homestand on Saturday, November 23 vs. the Eagles at 1:15 pm at SAP Center.

Short-handed Kings fall to the Nets 116-97

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By Jessica Kwong

BROOKLYN — The Sacramento Kings had a “tough night” and beginning to their four-game road trip on Friday night as they played short-handed and lost 116-97 to the Brooklyn Nets.

Both teams struggled with offense to start at Barclays Center, but Garrett Temple hit a triple to give the Nets a lead—that lasted the entire game except for one tie with a few minutes remaining in the first quarter. Brooklyn lead by as many as 22 points. Sacramento was only 4-26 from the three-point line.

“Tough night for us,” Kings head coach Luke Walton said. “If you’re a 3-point shooting team and you shoot 15 percent, you’re not going to win a lot of games. Where we have to be better at are things that we can control.” The Kings could not control the number of injuries that have plagued the team. They played without Bogdan Bogdanovic due to left hamstring tightness, in addition to Marvin Bagley and De’Aaron Fox who have been out with injuries.

Buddy Hield, who tried to step up in his teammates’ absence, had similar words to Walton about their performance: “It was a tough night.”

“When we have extra guys that can make shots it’s a little easier, but missing Bogie didn’t help us for sure,” Hield said. “It’s always ‘next man up’ mentality and we had to come out here and play. They did a good job. they made some shots and made some good plays.” The Kings trailed 26-23 after the first quarter and stayed in the game in the second, trailing 56-49 at the half. Rookie Justin James scored 4 points in 13 minutes played in the first half.

“I felt good out there—I was playing my game. I had a lot of mishaps defensively that I’m not too happy about but coach called on my number and I was ready to play,” James said. “Bogie was down tonight so I tried to come up and play the best that I can.” The game ran away from them in the Kings in third. The Nets began 4-4 and a 10-2 run led Walton to call a timeout. The Kings finished the quarter down 86-70. Sacramento’s bench players came out in the fourth quarter and the Kings fell to a 6-8 record.

The Nets won on rebounds 48-33, while the Kings beat them on assists 26-22 and had 16 turnovers, two fewer than the Nets. The Nets dominated on three’s, scoring 12.

“Brooklyn executed it well tonight and for whatever reason we didn’t do a good enough job of creating looks,” Walton said. “When we did get good looks, we just didn’t knock them down.” Brooklyn was without injured stars Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant.

The Kings continue their east coast road trip on Sunday facing the Washington Wizards. Tipoff is at 3 p.m.

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: What’s Next Regarding the A’s Howard Terminal Park?

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Photo credit: bizjournals.com

By Amaury Pi-González

“We’re excited to enter into this next phase of negotiations with the A’s to ensure they remain rooted in Oakland!”

That was the last statement issued by City of Oakland Officials right after the city dropped lawsuit over Alameda County over the possible sale of the Oakland Coliseum to the Oakland Athletics.The team offered to buy out both halves of the 112-acre Oakland Coliseum site, with the goal of building a new ballpark at Howard Terminal.

So what’s next? EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) was founded by the US government in 1970 about concern of environmental pollution. They will conduct studies about the location and what challenges they will encounter at Howard Terminal about the environment.

The New York Mets’ City Field was inaugurated in 2009, but was built with the highest environmental standards, with 95% recycled steel and a green roof to decrease energy needs along with water conserving measures like hand-free faucets and automated flush valves that save millions of gallons of water. It is not only the New York Metropolitans, but most new stadiums today are built similarly and the Bay Area is not different,

Earlier this year, KGO reported that the Bay Area is the most expensive place in the world to build. According to a report by United Kingdom-based consultant Turner and Townsend, the average construction cost in the Bay Area is $417 per square foot, surpassing New York’s $338. It is good news because the A’s will privately finance the park, so it will never go to a local election. When that happens here in the Bay Area,and there is an election to approve or disapprove the construction of a professional sports facility. The vote is “no” and you can just ask the San Francisco Giants.

Unlike states like Texas, Georgia or Missouri, the Bay Area is not easy to build a sports facility for a major league franchise. There are many decisions to be made and this is a project that involves hundreds of millions of dollars. This is the only professional big league franchise left in the City of Oakland, a once proud city that was named “City of Champions” in the 1970’s when the A’s, Raiders and Warriors all won titles, respectively. Obstacles remain and we will be talking about this until it happens or not. If the Howard Terminal location cannot be the place, the same place where they have been playing since 1968 to date would be the most sensicble solution for the A’s future. BART and Highway 880 are also not moving.