Even though the teams come in with vastly different records and seasons to date, whenever the Cal Poly and UC Davis football teams face off, all bets are off until the final buzzer.

In Saturday's edition of the Golden Horseshoe Classic at Alex G. Spanos Stadium, the third-ranked Mustangs and Aggies looked to be in the midst of an offensive slugfest, where the last team with the ball would win.

Instead, the home team put together a 17-minute stretch of play that was championship-worthy, scoring 23 straight points out of the halftime break to take a 51-28 victory in front of 11,075 fans at the sold-out stadium, clinching the Great West Football Conference title along the way.

“This is a real monkey off our back,” said receiver Ramses Barden, who had six catches for 70 yards and two touchdowns in the victory. “Even though we like to keep our mindset on the immediate future, it's hard to do with a game like this. As you go through the season, you're always thinking about Davis in the back of your mind.”

The Mustangs took over the game at the outset of the second half by scoring on each of its first three drives in the third quarter. Adding to that, the Cal Poly defense - which had been having major problems with the passing of Aggies quarterback Greg Denham - held UC Davis (2-1, 5-6) off the board on their first two drives. That broke open a 21-21 game, giving the Mustangs a 41-21 lead with 5:48 to go in the third.

The Mustangs players all said that a fiery halftime period, sparked by the players themselves, made all the difference.

“We said to ourselves, ‘not tonight,'” said safety David Fullerton, who had a second-half interception return for a touchdown in the victory. “There was just too much at stake.”

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The win for Cal Poly (3-0, 8-1) not only gave the school its third GWFC title in five years, it also gave the Mustangs enough wins to qualify for the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. The Cal Poly victory also tied the series between the two schools at 16-16-2, with the Mustangs winning the last three.

The Mustangs' offense racked up 522 yards of total offense in the win, including 427 of it on the ground. Senior quarterback Jonathan Dally had a big evening running the ball, gaining 173 yards on 22 carries, including 114 in the first half. Dally also scored Cal Poly's first touchdown on a 14-yard quarterback draw through a hole - set up by All-American guard Stephen Field - that was big enough to drive a car through.

Like Dally, fullback Jordan Yocum also cracked the century mark with 110 yards in the victory.

Barden made more history with the Mustangs five minutes into the second quarter, catching a three-yard fade pattern in the end zone for his first touchdown of the game and giving Cal Poly its first lead of the day (21-14). The TD catch upped Barden's streak to 18 straight games with at least one scoring catch, breaking Jerry Rice's Division I-AA/FCS record of 17, set from 1981-84.

“It's nice that the pressure's off now,” said Barden, who now has a school-record 47 TD catches in his career. “I do like that I have a little place in history. It's a small place, but it is a place. I'm glad that I'll be seen as someone who came along and made some plays.”

Still, it was the Aggies who looked to be making the big plays in the first half, largely sparked by Denham, who had 234 of his 332 passing yards and three of his four TD passes in the first 30 minutes of play. That sparked the big halftime blow-up, which was sparked, according to Dally, by defensive end Carlton Gillespie.

“Right when we went in there, Carlton started yelling and throwing guys around,” Dally said. “It happened just when we needed it. It flipped a switch with the defense. God bless him for doing that.”

While divine inspiration may not have been in play, the Mustangs definitely were at the start of the second half. On their opening drive, the Mustangs drove 73 yards on five plays, capping the drive with a 45-yard sweep by Dally's ex-Righetti High teammate Ryan Mole, putting Cal Poly up for good at 27-21 following Adam Gardner's blocked PAT.

The Mustangs pounced on the first of their two interceptions on the ensuing drive, as the Cal Poly pass rush forced Denham to throw the ball early, into the hands of linebacker Gavin Cooper, who returned it to the 16. Four plays later, Dally found Barden for the second of his TD catches, a two-yard strike to go up 34-21.

UC Davis followed with a three-and-out, and Cal Poly capitalized by driving 51 yards on six plays, capped by Yocum's six-yard scoring run, going up 41-21 a mere 10 1/2 minutes into the half.

After a 21-yard Gardner field goal put the Mustangs up 44-21, Fullerton capped the Cal Poly scoring on the ensuing UC Davis drive when he picked off a Denham pass tipped by an Aggies receiver and took it back 38 yards for a score, his fourth career interception return for a TD.

“I was the deep guy on the defense we'd called on that play, and it just fell into my hands,” Fullerton said. “(The field) was open right to the end zone.”

The Mustangs then ran out the clock with a 14-play drive - all on the ground - from their own six-yard line to the Aggies' 13. Even though the drive, which took up 9 1/2 minutes, stalled out, the Cal Poly offense got a big ovation from the fans on hand while coming off the field for their work in grinding out the clock.

Mole finished with 78 yards on nine carries, while James Noble had 35 yards on eight carries. Dally only managed 95 passing yards.

Aggies receiver Brandon Rice led the offensive charge with six catches for 145 yards and three touchdowns in the loss.

November 16, 2008