California Upsets Auburn 21-14 on the Back of Solid Defensive Play
California Upsets Auburn 21-14 on the Back of Solid Defensive Play
The California Golden Bears forced five turnovers against the Auburn Tigers
The California Golden Bears (2-0) made a statement win in its 21-14 upset against the Auburn Tigers (1-1) in front of 88,043 fans in the heart of SEC Country.
California quarterback Fernando Mendoza was nearly perfect in his passes Saturday, going a perfect eight-for-eight, including a 19-yard touchdown throw to first-year wide-out Nyziah Hunter in the first quarter, tying the score at 7-7. The sophomore signal-caller ended the afternoon, completing 25 out of 36 passes attempted for 233 passing yards and two touchdowns thrown to Hunter.
Mendoza left the game in the second half, when California slowed down, with an apparent knee injury after stepping awkwardly on a run out of bounds. The quarterback later returned with 2:13 remaining in the game.
California's defense helped the visiting team stay in contention in a close game, securing five turnovers against the SEC team. Linebacker Teddye Buchanan had a game-high 11 tackles, including three for a loss, two sacks, and a forced fumble.
The Auburn offense, which put up 73 points in its season-opening game last week, was limited to only two scores, including a touchdown on its first drive, and five out of 10 third-down conversions. Auburn quarterback Payton Thorne threw one touchdown and four picks.
The Golden Bears also limited the SEC pre-season first-team running back, Jarquez Hunter, to a pedestrian 68 rushing yards on 12 attempts and no scores while carrying the rock.
California's star running back Jaydn Ott saw limited impact. The rusher was limited to 11 rushing yards on 10 touches of the ball. Instead, sophomore Jaivian Thomas led with 53 rushing yards and one score. Thomas’ 32-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter gave California a 21-7 advantage.
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Congrats to Cal! Whipped our butt from the start, in a very hostile environment and didn’t hold up! Deserved.
Just remember this. Three ACC schools voted against Cal and Stanford. Since then, Florida State is 0-2 and has looked horrible. North Carolina barely beat a terrible Minnesota team. Clemson got CRUSHED by a school that voted FOR Cal and BTW, I went to high school with the Clemson University President James Clements. I had high regard for him UNTIL he attempted to screw over Cal. BTW part deux. I am not even a University of California grad. I am a Maryland grad and a 4 time Maryland letterman, but I married into a Cal family and my son became a 4th generation University of California graduate 2 years ago. I'm still pissed at Maryland President Darryl Pines who happens to be a California graduate himself (multiple times) for not doing everything possible to bring in Cal and Stanford into the B1G. I adore THE University of California and anyone that seeks to screw over Cal like USC and UCLA and FSU and Carolina and Clemson did are dead to me.