Chris Brown had his most explosive game this season for Cal Poly on Saturday against UC Davis. Photo by Ian Billings

Chris Brown threw for 100 yards for the first time this season, Willie Tucker caught three touchdowns, and Cal Poly’s offense could only be stopped by themselves in a 55-38 win in Davis over the UC Davis Aggies.

On the second play from scrimmage, Brown found Tucker for the first of three long touchdowns. After Cal Poly’s defense got a few stops in the second quarter, the Mustangs stretched their lead out for good.

In the first half alone, Brown rushed for, passed for, and caught touchdown passes. It’s the second time he’s achieved that feat — he took the whole game to do it last season at Weber State.

Two second-half fumbles made the game interesting, but Brown and Cal Poly’s triple option offense marched for another scoring drive to seal the game.

Rushing for points

Cal Poly’s rushing game got them lots of early points for the second game in a row. Chris Brown rushed for 155 yards and a touchdown. He threw for 153 yards and three touchdowns. His 319.5 quarterback rating was only eclipsed by Kori Garcia’s 682 rating.

The Mustangs scored two or more touchdowns every quarter except the third, when they scored just one. Cal Poly racked-up 669 total yards. Brown was the only one over 100 yards on the ground, but nine other Mustangs rushed it in the onslaught. This is what Cal Poly fans really hoped this offense would look more like all season.

Trickeration

Cal Poly was helped by a few trick plays in the first half. Roland Jackson rushed on an end-around for a first down and shortly thereafter, Brown caught the running back pass from Garcia. Cal Poly saw UC Davis selling-out to stop the option offense and made them pay.

Time for Tucker

Willie Tucker is obviously back from the knee injury that cost him all of last year and much of the season before. At Cal Poly, he has consistently beaten defensive secondaries at every college level. Probably more impressive has been his ability to commit to blocking the edge in the run game.

Turnovers

We saw a glimpse in the second half of the fumble issues that have plagued the Mustangs all year. Fumbles on consecutive possesions gave UC Davis hte ball down by just ten. But Cal Poly’s defense forced a 4th quarter punt and the offense was able to control the clock from there.

With the win, Cal Poly’s record is now 4-6 with one game to play. The Mustangs host North Dakota a week from today at Alex G. Spanos Stadium. North Dakota will mark the 9th game this season out of 11 total for Cal Poly against a team that has been ranked or is Arizona State.

Find stats from the game here

Photos by Ian Billings

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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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