Bears Manhandle Oregon State, 49-7

Saturday, October 20

Corvallis, OR

1:00 PM

California

4-3 , 1-3

Oregon State

1-6 , 0-4

Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final F
California	7	14	7	21	49
Oregon State	0	0	7	0	7

Patrick Laird rushed for a season-high 193 yards and had three total touchdowns against Oregon State.

10/20/2018 4:22 PM | Football

Box Score Highlights Final Stats (XML)Final Stats (PDF)Postgame Notes Postgame Quotes Kunaszyk Postgame Wilcox Presser Kunaszyk Presser Garbers Presser Laird Presser McMorris Presser Paul Presser Turner III Presser

Cal Dominates On Both Sides Of The Ball For First Pac-12 Victory

By: Cal Athletics

BERKELEY – The Cal football team put forth season-best performances on both sides of the ball in a 49-7 whitewashing of Oregon State on Saturday afternoon at Reser Stadium.

The Bears (4-3, 1-3 Pac-12) racked up a season-high 539 yards of total offense, including a season-high 305 yards rushing. Senior Patrick Laird led the ground effort with a season-best 193 yards rushing and two touchdowns while reserve Christopher Brown Jr. registered his first career touchdown run.

Quarterback Chase Garbers was an efficient 17-for-26 for 234 yards through the air with three touchdowns and no interceptions. Cal amassed eight big plays of 20 yards or more.

The Bears held Oregon State, which entered the game ranked third in the Pac-12 in total offense (453.7 yards per game), to just 241 yards from scrimmage. It was the Beavers' lowest output of the season. Included in Cal's defensive effort were a season-high seven sacks and 12 tackles for loss.

"When we are able to stay in rhythm and control what we can control, we do a pretty good job of moving the ball on offense and getting stops on defense," Cal head coach Justin Wilcox said. "I'm proud of our team and how we've continued to work together. We had a really good week of practice and we came out and executed better today on both sides of the ball."

The Bears opened the scoring on their second possession of the game, as a 55-yard pass from Garbers to Vic Wharton III set up a 3-yard touchdown pass to Malik McMorris. Cal extended it to 21-0 on 29-yard touchdown catch by Laird, who followed that up with a 4-yard scoring run. It marked the second time this season Laird has had a touchdown run and catch in the game game.

Laird broke off a 53-yard run on the first play from scrimmage in the third quarter, helping the Bears complete a 78-yard drive that finished with Brown Jr's score to extend the advantage to 28-0 early in the third quarter.

Meanwhile, Cal's defense forced Oregon State into four consecutive three-and-outs in the first half, and Traveon Beck followed that up with his second interception of the year.

The Beavers cut the deficit to 28-7 with 3:40 remaining in the third quarter and then recovered an onside kick. But the Bears' defense did what it had been doing for most of the afternoon – slowed Oregon State's offense to a standstill and forcing another three-and out.

"It's great to get a win," Wilcox said. "We knew it's a challenge to come in here. It's a tough place to play. Now we just have to take the next step where we are executing more consistently."

The Bears put things away with three fourth-quarter touchdowns – a 24-yard pass from Garbers to Kanawai Noa, a 30-yard scoring run by Laird and a 54-yard interception return by Josh Drayden.
Sophomore Tevin Paul led Cal's defensive pressure with 2.5 tackles for loss, including his first career sack.

"He's been a pretty active guy for us," Wilcox said. "I thought our defense was ready to play and we executed better. As a whole, our defense played really hard and pretty clean."

The Bears will return home next Saturday to host No. 15 Washington at 3:30 p.m. The game will air on Fox Sports 1.