BERKELEY - Cal didn’t waste any time putting Wagner away on Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium. By the end of the first quarter, the Golden Bears had already built a cushion, and Adam Mohammed was right in the middle of it.
Mohammed scored three touchdowns in the opening frame to jump-start a 49-7 Cal win over the Seahawks. He finished with 169 all-purpose yards on 15 touches, and in the process he moved past 1,000 career rushing yards.
Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele matched that fast start with the kind of passing day that can carry a team for a long stretch. The true sophomore completed 27 of 33 passes for a career-high 413 yards and three touchdowns, with nine of those throws going to Chase Hendricks. Sagapolutele also crossed 4,000 career passing yards, and he became the first Cal quarterback to throw for more than 400 yards since Jack Plummer put up 406 against USC in 2022.
The biggest explosion came from Kyion Grayes. In the first quarter, the redshirt junior turned a medium-range Sagapolutele throw into an 80-yard touchdown, the longest score of both players’ college careers so far. Ian Strong helped make it happen with a strong downfield block that cleared the way.
Cal kept finding different ways to reach the end zone. Cooper Perry and Asthen Emory each picked up their first touchdowns of the season.
On the defensive side, the Golden Bears did enough to keep Wagner from ever threatening the outcome. Safety Kingston Lopa led the way with five combined tackles and a pass breakup as Cal held Wagner to a season-low seven points. Lopa also added his nation-leading fifth interception of the year.
The special teams, though, were a mess at times. Aaron Hampton did block a field goal, but Cal also gave up a 51-yard kickoff return, fumbled multiple punts, missed a field goal and generally had too many breakdowns in that phase of the game. That was true against a Wagner special teams unit that had already allowed three punt-return touchdowns to James Madison a week earlier.
The Bears also had issues up front. They didn’t consistently control the line of scrimmage, especially in the first half.
Even with those problems, Cal walked away at 2-1 overall and 1-0 in the ACC. Next up is a major test: Clemson comes to Berkeley for a Friday night showdown.
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 🡒]