Mustangs wrestle the Golden Horseshoe away from Davis

Cal Poly’s Deonte Williams rushed 20 times for 188 yards and scored 3 touchdowns in the 2012 Battle for the Golden Horseshoe. Williams now has 493 yards rushing and 4 touchdowns through 3 games. He rushed for 385 yards and 5 touchdowns during all of last season. Photo by David Livingston

In what can best be described as a classically-odd rivalry game, Cal Poly gave up 10 quick points to UC Davis, scored four straight touchdowns, and held on tight for a nail-biting, closer-than-it-should-have-been, 28-20 victory over their rivals on Saturday night.

In front of a sellout crowd of 11,075, Cal Poly deferred the opening kickoff. Davis drove for a field goal and then held the Mustangs to a 3-and-out on the ensuing possession. On the Aggie’s second possession, quarterback Randy Wright found receiver Corey Galindo for a 67-yard touchdown pass and before the Cal Poly offense could run a fourth play, they were down 10-0.

The second and third quarter belonged to Cal Poly. The Mustangs scored four unanswered touchdowns — one from Akaninyene Umoh and three from Deonte Williams — to go up 28-10 with 5:13 to go in the third quarter. Williams has now put-up three consecutive 100-yard games and surpassed his yardage total from all of last season.

The Aggies started to “hurry-up” their offense late in the third quarter and with 10:10 remaining in the 4th, scored a touchdown against what already looked like a tired Mustangs front-seven. They added a field goal to get within 8 points of Cal Poly, but the Mustangs defense would finally stop them with just over 2:00 to go in the game.

Cal Poly might have been ahead by more than 18 points going into the 4th quarter. Bobby Zalud, who has been reliable in the first two games, missed two first-half field goals. Receiver Lance Castaneda also dropped a pass in the end zone in the first half.

The sellout was the sixth ever sellout at Spanos. Three of them have been against UC Davis. The win was the Mustangs’ first in the Big Sky Conference and the first over UC Davis after 3 straight defeats. Cal Poly has two Big Sky road games over the next two weeks — at North Dakota on Saturday September 29 and at Weber State Friday October 5.

Photos by David Livingston

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