Bears Impressive in 27-14 Victory Over Minnesota

MEMORIAL STADIUM – The Bears picked up an impressive victory yesterday over their second favored opponent of the season with a 27-14 win over 2-1 Minnesota today at Memorial Stadium.

Frosh QB Jaron Keawe Sagapolutele‍ shined again for his third straight quality start of his young career, throwing for a career-high 279 on 24-of-38 passing yards and three touchdowns in the victory.

"Coach (OC Bryan) Harsin told me at the beginning of the week that we were going to have to throw the ball," Sagapolutele said. "All of the receivers were getting open for me and they made the throws so much easier."

"Jaron continues to impress," head coach Justin Wilcox said after the game. "It's not surprising to us because we see it every day in practice. We don't sit there on the sideline thinking Jaron can't handle it. Those words never come out of our mouth. He's doing a heck of a job."

With two of the better defenses in the nation coming into the game, a low-scoring affair was expected and the first half played out exactly as expected with just 17 points scored in the opening 30 minutes of the game, though both teams were able to move the ball, combining for over 400 yards of offense.

The Gophers came into the game with the top-rated yardage defense in the nation, giving up just 96 total yards per game and just 2.38 yards per play. They were also rated fourth in the nation in scoring defense, surrendering just 5 points per game. The Bears were close behind at 19th in scoring defense with 9 points per game.

The Bears got on the board first after forcing a 3-and-out in Minnesota’s second possession and taking over at the Cal 38. The Bears drove 62 yards in 5:16 to light up the scoreboard first on the strength of Sagapolute completions of 16 yards to receiver Jordan King and a pair of 18 and 22-yard completions to receiver Trond Grizzell that set the Bears up with first goal. An easy swing pass completion to receiver Jacob De Jesus‍ for a 4-yard TD with 2:54 remaining in the quarter put the Bears up 7-0 after the PAT.

Minnesota would eventually claw their way back to a tie, putting together a nearly 7 minute drive as running back Cam Davis took a direct snap and powered it in from the 1 to briefly tie up the game after the PAT in the closing minute of the half.

After the Gophers picked up their late score, the Bears showed an aggressiveness to end the first half seldom seen recent seasons, calling several timeouts late in the Minnesota drive, giving themselves a chance to put together a quick score and their aggressiveness paid off. Taking over with 43 seconds remaining, the frosh QB immediately hit soph receiver Mark Hamper for a big 29-yard gain to move the ball to the UM 47. After hitting De Jesus for 19 yards and completing a quick pass to tight end Mason Mini, the Bears settled for a 45-yard Abram Murray field goal to take a 10-7 lead into the locker room as time expired.

Taking over at their 36, Minnesota took their first lead of the game, driving 64 yards in 10 plays, with quarterback Drake Lindsey (19-for-32, 205 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT) hitting tight end Jameson Geers over OLB Ryan McCormick to put the Gophers in front, 14-10 with 4:36 remaining in the 3rd quarter.

The Bears finally got their running game going late in the 3rd quarter with soph running back Brandon High‍ coming up with a pair of big runs for 18 and 13 yards on back-to-back plays, giving the Bears a first down at the Minnesota 36. After four straight Sagapolutele completions put the Bears in first and goal at the 9, the frosh QB hit tight end Mason Mini‍ for a quick pass and the athletic TE shed three tackles, powering his way to the end zone, giving the Bears a 17-14 lead.

It was still 17-14 midway through the fourth quarter when Minnesota's Koi Perch couldn't cleanly handle a punt by Cal's Michael Kern and safety Aiden Manutai‍ recovered it at the Gophers' 8-yard line. Sagapolutele found receiver Jordan King on a 2-yard TD pass three plays later to push the Bears' advantage to 24-14.

The recovery of the muffed punt was the type of hard to come by break the Bears have seldom seen in a string of close losses in late season and was pivotal in spurring the Bears on to victory in a game that was going down to the wire.

Chase Meyer's 38-yard field goal with just over a minute to play closed out the scoring.

"Every win in college football is a big win. It's not easy to win," De Jesus said. "Give that team a lot of credit. They have a lot of great players. We showed we can beat them and where we are at. I thought tonight was our big first test, and it showed what we can do."

Linebacker Cade Uluave had to sit the first half after being ejected on a targeting call in the second half of the Bears’ 35-3 victory over Texas Southern last weekend and he was raring to go when he hit the field in the third quarter, racking up an impressive 9 tackles in just 30 minutes, nearly catching fellow starting ILB Luke Ferrelli who had his second straight big game, leading the team in tackles with 11.

“I was itching pretty bad on the sideline,” Ulave said. “They took away my helmet so I couldn't have my helmet, so I'm just on the sideline, just like going crazy, kind of going little stir crazy and stuff. But the guys played great and it was super awesome to see. It fired me up. So when I was able to get in the second half, I was just juiced, just ready to go and super excited. But it was a fun game, physical game and I'm super proud of the guys. They gave it their all and came out with the W so that's all that matters.”

Wide receiver Jacob De Jesus had seven catches for 54 yards and his first touchdown at Cal while Jordan King caught his first career touchdown pass. Tight end Mason Mini added his second scoring catch of the season.

Cornerback Hezekiah Masses recorded an interception for the third straight game to go along with 8 tackles for the Bears, who have now started a season 3-0 five times in Wilcox's nine years at Cal.

The Bears close out the nonconference portion of their schedule next Saturday at San Diego State. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. and the game will air on CBS Sports Network.