Cal wasted no time turning Saturday into a runaway, burying Wagner 49-7 at Memorial Stadium and piling up 626 yards of offense in a game that was lopsided almost from the opening drive.
The Bears opened with the kind of pace Tosh Lupoi said he wanted afterward, and the first four series delivered exactly that. Cal scored on its first possession, a seven-play, 75-yard march finished by a 28-yard Adam Mohammed touchdown. Wagner answered the kickoff return game with a 51-yard burst from Karlos Grier, but the Seahawks’ offense couldn’t do anything with the field position and went three-and-out.
From there, Cal kept finding answers. Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele was sharp from the start, completing 8 of 9 passes across the first two drives while the Bears kept moving the ball and benefited from roughing-the-passer penalties.
Mohammed added another rushing score after contact to push the lead to 14-0, and then Cal hit the kind of explosive play that broke the game open: Sagapolutele escaped pressure and connected with Kyion Grayes for an 80-yard touchdown, with Grayes going coast-to-coast across Memorial Stadium. Cal then ran a trick play on the extra point and converted for two more points.
The barrage kept coming. After another Wagner punt, Sagapolutele hit Mohammed on a screen and watched the former Husky take it 65 yards for his third touchdown of the day. By the end of the first quarter, Cal had poured in 29 points, its most in a single quarter since 2015, and Sagapolutele had also moved past 4,000 career passing yards.
Wagner did finally settle in for a drive of its own. The Seahawks put together a 65-yard, 12-play march and scored on a touchdown pass after a blown coverage by Cal.
But that was the exception, not the pattern. Cal answered with two more touchdowns before halftime and went to the break ahead 39-7.
Sagapolutele’s first half was the headline. He finished it 24 of 29 for a career-high 358 yards and three touchdowns.
Mohammed was right there with him, totaling 169 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns, two on the ground and one through the air. Lupoi compared Mohammed’s impact to Marshawn Lynch, saying, “(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 brought more of the same, with Sagapolutele and most of the starters returning before eventually giving way. The left-handed quarterback went over 400 passing yards for the game and helped set up Cal’s sixth touchdown before exiting on the next possession. On the following series, Kingston Lopa stepped in front of a Benjamin Newman throw over the middle for his fifth interception of the season.
Backup quarterback Jackson Brousseau then took over in a short drive that ended with a turnover on downs at the 3-yard line after a penalty wiped out a would-be touchdown and Brousseau couldn’t find Dorian Thomas in the end zone. Cal’s backups also missed a 43-yard field goal before the third quarter ended with the Bears in front 46-7.
The fourth quarter slowed to a crawl as Cal emptied the bench. Wagner got a chance to chip away after QuaRon Adams muffed his second punt of the game, but Aaron Hampton blocked the Seahawks’ field goal attempt and kept them at seven points. Cal added one more field goal from Chase Meyer with under four minutes left to reach the final 49-7 margin.
Wagner’s trip from Staten Island ended with 198 total yards against Cal’s 626, part of a brutal two-week stretch for the Seahawks after last week’s 87-3 loss. Cal, meanwhile, turns quickly to a much tougher test: Clemson comes to Berkeley for an ACC after-dark matchup on Friday, Sept. 25, at 7:30 p.m.
Lupoi said the expectations are clear for that one: “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 🡒]