Cal Bears Fall To Ohio St. Buckeyes

BERKELEY, Calif. – The California Golden Bears knew they were in for a tough battle when No. 4 ranked Ohio St. made their way to Memorial Stadium for the Saturday afternoon game. The Bears, looking for their first win over a top five team since beating No. 3 USC 34-31 back on Sept. 27, 2003.
The Bears just didn’t know how early it would begin.


The Buckeyes wasted no time as they scored their first touchdown, a 90-yard passing play from Kevin Guiton to Devin Smith on the second play from scrimmage. The Buckeyes would keep attacking as the Bears young and inexperienced defense was handed a 21-0 deficit in the first quarter.
“We’re kind of grabbing guys. We have to go with who we have,” said Head Coach Sonny Dykes.

Dan Gluskoter / Courtesy – Ohio St. Devin Smith (left) out runs Stefan McClure (right) for a touchdown. Smith caught three balls for 149 yards with two scores against Cal on Saturday, Sept. 14, 2013

“We’ve made some wholesale changes back there from really where we started the season and what we thought the depth chart would be and where it is now. It’s not an excuse. It is what it is. Our job is to win football games and put guys in position to win. We have enough good players to win. We’re going to have some growing pains. When someone goes down, the next guy has to step up and you keep on rolling.”

Dan Gluskoter / Courtesy –  Cal quarterback Jared Goff, 379 passing yards, was 21 yards shy from breaking a UC Berkeley record for yards passing through the first three games of a career.

Although down, the Golden Bears were not out. Led by freshman quarterback Jarred Goff, the Bears would battle back and pull within 11-points at the half, with the score 31-20 in favor of Ohio St. Goff would end the game with 379-yards of passing, just 21-yards short of setting a new record Cal record of three 400-yard passing games to start a career.

The second half wouldn’t change the outcome, but did give the fans a good showing of what is to come as the Bears notched 14 more points in the second, although allowing 21 more to the Buckeyes.
The final score was 52-34 with No. 4 Ohio St. on top.

“I’m not a believer in moral victories, but I thought our team played hard,” said Coach Dykes. “I hate the whole moral victory thing. That’s one of the things we have to get out of our program. You play the game to win. That’s something we have to learn how to do.”

The Cal schedule doesn’t get any easier as their next game pits them against the No. 2 Oregon Ducks. The game is at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Ore. Kick off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.