Cal turned a lopsided afternoon into a full-on rout, rolling past Wagner 49-7 at Memorial Stadium and never letting the Seahawks breathe after the opening minutes.
The Bears set the tone immediately with a seven-play, 75-yard opening drive finished by a 28-yard Adam Mohammed touchdown. Wagner briefly answered with a spark on special teams, getting a 51-yard kick return from Karlos Grier, but that burst fizzled fast when the Seahawks went three-and-out on the next possession.
From there, Cal kept piling on. Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele was sharp right out of the gate, completing 8 of his first 9 passes across the first two drives, and Mohammed added another rushing score after contact to make it 14-0.
Then came the first real dagger: Sagapolutele stood in against pressure and hit Kyion Grayes for an 80-yard touchdown, with Grayes taking it coast-to-coast across Memorial Stadium. Cal even dialed up a trick play on the extra point and converted for two more.
The Bears weren’t done. After another Wagner punt, Sagapolutele found Mohammed on a screen, and Mohammed did the rest, racing 65 yards for his third touchdown of the game. By the time the first quarter ended, Cal had stacked up 29 points - its most in a single quarter since 2015 - and Sagapolutele had passed the 4,000-yard mark for his career.
Wagner did put together one clean drive in the second quarter, a 65-yard march that lasted 12 plays and ended with a touchdown pass on a blown Cal coverage. But the Bears answered right back. Cal went into halftime with a 39-7 lead, holding a massive edge in production with 448 yards to Wagner’s 114 and 19 first downs to the Seahawks’ six.
Sagapolutele’s first half was the headline act: 24-of-29 passing for a career-high 358 yards and three touchdowns. Mohammed was just as central, finishing the half with 169 all-purpose yards and three total touchdowns, two on the ground and one through the air.
“(Marshawn Lynch) had a unique ability to ignite the defense. That’s what I think (Mohammed) can do at times,” Lupoi said. “He’s a guy that can run with physicality, but can take … an explosive run and finish it for a touchdown.”
The second half kept the same script. Sagapolutele returned with the starters, pushed beyond 400 passing yards for the day, and helped set up Cal’s sixth touchdown before leaving on the next possession. On that snap, Kingston Lopa jumped a Benjamin Newman throw over the middle for his fifth interception of the season.
Backup quarterback Jackson Brousseau took over, but Cal’s next scoring chance stalled after a penalty wiped out a would-be touchdown, and the Bears settled for a turnover on downs at the 3-yard line when Brousseau couldn’t find Dorian Thomas in the end zone. Chase Meyer later missed a 43-yard field goal, and the third quarter closed with Cal up 46-7.
Once the backups were spread across most of the offense, the game slowed considerably. Wagner’s best chance to add points came after Cal returner QuaRon Adams muffed his second punt of the game, but Aaron Hampton blocked the Seahawks’ field goal attempt to keep them stuck on seven. Meyer added another field goal with just under four minutes left, pushing the final to 49-7.
Cal now turns quickly to a much tougher challenge, hosting Clemson on Friday, Sept. 25, at 7:30 p.m. Lupoi made clear what he wants from the night.
“I just want to make it clear, this coming Friday night is a huge opportunity for our fan base … it’s our full expectation (that) this stadium is sold out on Friday night, and I’m going to be extremely disappointed if it’s not,” Lupoi said. “So Friday night, if you have any plans and it’s not coming to the Cal game, you need to cancel them. I don't care what age you are.”
In Other News...
Cal Has A Chance To Fix One Concern Before Clemson Looms
After opening ACC play with a win at Syracuse, Cal comes home this week to face Wagner with a chance to tighten a few things up before Clemson appears on the schedule. The Bears have been boosted by sophomore safety Kingston Lopa, whose ball production has stood out early, and by running back Adam Mohammed, who has emerged as one of the leagues more productive rushers.
Wagner, an FCS program from Staten Island, arrives after a heavy loss to James Madison and has not beaten a Power 4 opponent. Redshirt freshman quarterback Benjamin Newman leads the Seahawks offense, but for Cal the bigger question is whether this game can serve as a clean tune-up while the Bears continue sorting out the pieces around their next stretch of conference play. [Read more 🡒]
Cal Showed Off A Dangerous New Edge In Blowout Win
Cal left little doubt in its blowout win over Wagner, leaning on a physical edge and an offense that kept finding answers all game. Jaron Keawe Sagapolutele helped direct the attack, Adam Mohammed found the end zone multiple times, and the Bears kept stacking scoring drives while Wagner had trouble sustaining anything of its own.
The big-play element also showed up in a hurry, with Cal stretching the field and turning one explosive moment into a wider avalanche. Wagner did manage to score once, but most of the afternoon belonged to a Bears team that looked faster, stronger, and much harder to handle than the opposition, a promising sign for a group trying to prove it can bring more than just efficiency on offense. [Read more 🡒]
Cal Pulled Off A Syracuse Win That Makes No Sense
Cals win at Syracuse was the kind of result that leaves the box score looking upside down. Syracuse outplayed the Bears in most of the familiar categories, but Cal kept finding a way to stay alive because the defense kept swinging the game back in its direction. Kingston Lopa was at the center of it, turning in one of the best defensive showings Cal has had in recent memory and changing the feel of the afternoon with every takeaway.
The odd part is how little the broader performance seemed to matter once the turnovers started piling up. By the usual in-game metrics, this was a victory that barely made sense, one of those results the models would not have liked for Cal without the hidden value created on defense. Lopas impact was so large that it moved the Bears from being outplayed to being the team with the better path to the finish, which is why the game will be remembered less for how it looked and more for how it ended. [Read more 🡒]