Cal Poly to Host UC Davis in 40th Battle for the Golden Horseshoe Saturday
11/10/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | UC DAVIS | BIG SKY
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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Cal Poly (6-4, 5-2 Big Sky), which had its five-game winning streak snapped at Idaho State last week and has lost two Big Sky Conference games by a total of five points, plays its final home game of the 2014 regular season Saturday night, hosting rival UC Davis (1-8, 0-6 Big Sky) in the 40th edition of the Battle for the Golden Horseshoe at Alex G. Spanos Stadium (11,075).
Kickoff is set for 6:05 p.m. PST and the game will be broadcast live on ESPN Radio (1280 am) with Tom Barket calling the play-by-play and Lloyd Nelson serving as an analyst. Links for video and audio streams as well as live stats are available at www.GoPoly.com.
UC Davis has lost seven straight since a 52-17 victory over Fort Lewis in the second week of the season. The Aggies opened the year with a 45-0 loss at Stanford and have played five nationally ranked teams this season, including Stanford in the FBS and Eastern Washington, Montana, Montana State and Northern Arizona in the FCS.
Last week, UC Davis fell 23-21 at Northern Arizona despite holding the Lumberjacks scoreless and to just 74 yards in the second half. Trailing by 16 points at intermission, the Aggies scored twice and had one final chance to take the lead with 1:21 to play before quarterback Ben Scott was intercepted near midfield. Gabe Manzanares rushed for 83 yards on 16 carries, Scott completed 18 of 29 passes for 204 yards and two scores and both Manzanares and Ramon Vargas caught four passes.
Coached by Tim Walsh (sixth season, 38-29, UC Riverside '77), Cal Poly opened the year with two games on the road, dropping a 28-10 decision at New Mexico State and 44-18 at South Dakota State. After a bye week, the Mustangs compiled 470 yards on the ground and scored the first 35 points of the game en route to a 42-14 non-conference victory over Big Sky rival Portland State in their home opener.
Northern Arizona scored with 21 seconds left to hand Cal Poly a heartbreaking 38-35 loss in the Big Sky opener before the Mustangs bounced back with a 42-39 win at home over Southern Utah, igniting a five-game winning streak. Cal Poly snapped a 24-24 tie with a one-yard dive by senior fullback Brandon Howe with 13:46 to play and held on to beat Weber State 30-24 in Ogden, Utah, and the Mustangs earned their second road win at Sacramento State, 56-27, erasing a 17-7 second-quarter deficit by outscoring the Hornets 42-3 over a 27-minute span.
Returning home, Cal Poly scored 27 unanswered points to erase a 14-7 deficit and beat Montana 41-21 as Chris Brown rushed for 226 yards, a school record for a quarterback, and two touchdowns. The Mustangs earned their eighth straight win over Montana State with a 35-27 triumph two weeks ago, Karlton Dennis sealing the win with his third interception of the year with 1:01 left.
Facing a first-place showdown in the Big Sky for the third straight week, Cal Poly dropped a 30-28 decision at Idaho State last Saturday in Pocatello. Brown rushed for 195 yards on 39 carries, scoring three times, and tossed a touchdown pass to Kyle Lewis, but the Mustangs couldn't take advantage of interceptions by Cameron Ontko and Jordan Williams and could only drive 37 yards from their own 10-yard line in the final minute of play before turning the ball over on downs.
Cal Poly and UC Davis joined 11 other schools in the Big Sky Conference prior to the 2012 season. The Aggies have won eight of their first 22 games in the Big Sky. The Aggies elevated their football program to the Football Championship Subdivision in 2007 and are still seeking their first FCS playoff berth. They earned NCAA Division II playoff berths 18 times, including the 1982 championship final.
Cal Poly football, presented by French Hospital Medical Center, opened Fall Camp with 61 returning lettermen, including 16 players who started at least four games in 2013. Topping the list of returnees are senior linebacker Nick Dzubnar and senior defensive lineman Jake Irwin, both third-team All-Big Sky Conference selections a year ago, and four others who earned All-Big Sky honorable mention praise -- offensive linemen Matt Fisher and Stephen Sippel, defensive tackle Chris Lawrence and linebacker Cameron Ontko.
Juniors Chris Brown and Dano Graves returned at quarterback and waged a two-man battle throughout the spring and fall. The duo combined for 10 starts, 1,052 rushing yards and 111 of the team's 136 pass completions a year ago.
Brown, who has started the first 10 contests this season, started six games last year and passed for 836 yards and 11 touchdowns while rushing for eight scores and 685 additional yards, including 195 yards in a win at UC Davis, then the school record for a quarterback. Graves started four games and rushed for 367 yards while passing for 416 yards.
Getting most of the carries this fall are sophomore Kori Garcia and seniors Chris Nicholls and Kenny Mitchell at slotback and seniors Brandon Howe and Brent Michaels at fullback. Among the top receivers on the roster are juniors Roland Jackson Jr. and Jordan Hines and sophomore Carson McMurtrey at wide receiver and senior Austin Albison at tight end.
With numerous vacancies to fill on both sides of the ball, several transfers and even some true freshmen have stepped in right away, including freshman Lance Mudd at slotback, Nevada transfer Burton De Koning at linebacker, Washington State transfer Logan Mayes at defensive end and Wake Forest transfer Andrew Hauser and freshman Fino Elisaia at defensive tackle. American River College transfer Tyler Alsey at defensive tackle and Protheroe, a freshman fullback, also have played this season.
A year ago, Cal Poly was No. 1 in the FCS in rushing offense (309.1). Two years ago, the Mustangs broke the Big Sky record for rushing yards in a season with 3,890 yards in 12 games. Expect more of the same from the Mustangs' Triple Option in 2014. The Mustangs netted 259 yards against New Mexico State, averaging 5.3 yards per carry, added 226 more yards at South Dakota State, 470 against Portland State, 271 at Northern Arizona, 452 against Southern Utah, 393 at Sacramento State, 421 versus Montana, 376 against Montana State and 425 at Idaho State. Cal Poly, which has compiled at least 480 yards of total offense in each of its last eight games, leads the Big Sky and the FCS in rushing offense, averaging 358.2 yards a game.
Coached by Ron Gould (second season, 6-15, Oregon '88), UC Davis returned 51 lettermen, including 14 offensive and defensive starters, off last year's team which went 5-7 overall and finished tied for fourth in the Big Sky with three other teams at 5-3.
For the season, Manzanares has rushed for 440 yards and two touchdowns, averaging 4.9 yards per carry. Scott, a sophomore, has completed 94 of 155 passes (61 percent) for 1,201 yards and 13 scores. His favorite targets are Vargas with 33 catches for 542 yards and seven touchdowns, Manzanares with 21 catches and Dalton Turay with 20 catches. Strong safety Keelan Culberson leads the Aggies defensively with 56 tackles and five pass breakups. Linebacker Russell Reeder has a pair of interceptions. Shamawn Wright averages 24.7 yards per kickoff return, including one 89 yards for a touchdown, while Colby Wadman averages 41.5 yards per punt.
UC Davis is averaging 347 yards in total offense per game -- 122 on the ground and 225 through the air -- and scoring 23 points a contest while giving up 488 yards (193 rushing, 295 passing) and 38 points per game.
Gould, a 1988 graduate of Oregon, was an assistant coach at Cal for 16 seasons before replacing Bob Biggs as UC Davis head coach in December 2012. A defensive back for the Ducks, Gould was a graduate assistant at Oregon (1990-91) and coached the defensive backs at Portland State (in 1992 under Tim Walsh) and Boise State (1993-96) before moving on to Cal.
Cal Poly, which won three straight games against UC Davis from 2006-08 to even the series at 16-16-2, lost three in a row to the Aggies the following three years before snapping the losing streak with a 28-20 victory in 2013 in San Luis Obispo. Deonte Williams rushed for 188 yards and three touchdowns while Akaninyene Umoh ran 51 yards for another score as the Mustangs overcame an early 10-0 deficit for the win. The Mustangs also won last year at Davis, 34-16, behind Brown's 195-yard rushing performance, including three touchdowns. Brown completed just one of five passes as the Mustang rushing game netted 414 yards. Cal Poly shattered a 13-13 halftime tie by outscoring the Aggies 21-3 in the second half.
UC Davis still leads the series 19-18-2. First game of the series was played in 1939 and the two teams have met every year since 1978. Walsh is 7-8 against UC Davis -- 1-3 while coaching at Sonoma State, 4-2 while at Portland State and 2-3 at Cal Poly -- while Gould is 0-1 against Cal Poly. Against the Aggies, the Mustangs are 11-8 at home and 7-11-2 in Davis.
Although the two teams are meeting for the 40th time, the official "Battle for the Golden Horseshoe" was established in 2004 as the student-run spirit clubs from both schools came together to sponsor a perpetual trophy that resides with the team that wins each year. The horseshoe-shaped trophy signifies the agricultural influence at both universities. Since the trophy was created in 2004, the series is tied at 5-5. Seventeen of the previous 39 games in the all-time series have been decided by seven points or less.
A year ago, the Mustangs, 3-3 at home and 3-3 on the road, were ranked as high as No. 10 before losing to Yale and falling out of the top 25 for the rest of the year. Among the milestones achieved by Mustang players last fall, Alex Hubbard's 31.9 kickoff return average is No. 2 all-time at Cal Poly while Bobby Zalud's 148 total points by kicking is No. 4 and his 88 career PAT kicks made is No. 5. Paul Hundley's 43.8 punting average is No. 3 and he finished the season with a 41.65 career average, No. 2 on the list. Three Mustangs, all linebackers, secured over 100 tackles, the first time that has been accomplished in one season. Dzubnar's 112 tackles is No. 8 all-time while both Ontko and Johnny Millard had 108, tied for No. 9.
This year's leaders through 10 games are Brown (1,148 rushing yards and 15 TDs, 1,242 passing yards and 10 TDs), slotback Kori Garcia (851 yards, 6.4 average per carry, six TDs) and fullback Brandon Howe (pictured above) (715 yards, eight TDs). Chris Nicholls has rushed for 251 yards and is among Cal Poly's top receivers with 12 catches. Kenny Mitchell has 16 catches, Garcia 15, Jordan Hines 12 and Roland Jackson 11.
Linebacker Nick Dzubnar, added to the Buck Buchanan Award watch list three weeks ago, tops all defensive players with 142 tackles, reaching double digits in nine of Cal Poly's 10 games this season. Linebacker Cameron Ontko has 91 tackles while Karlton Dennis and Jordan Williams have three interceptions each and Chris Fletcher eight pass breakups.
With his 195 yards last week at Idaho State, Brown became the first Mustang quarterback to rush for over 1,000 yards in a season. The previous 16 Mustang 1,000-yard rushers all were running backs. Brown also broke the Big Sky single-season record for rushing yards by a quarterback. Old mark of 1,060 was set by Connor Kavanaugh of Portland State in 2011.
Cal Poly, which captured the 2012 Big Sky title in its first year in the conference, was picked by head coaches this summer to finish fourth in the Big Sky for the second straight season. The Mustangs shared fourth place with Southern Utah, Montana State and UC Davis in 2013.
Saturday's game will be Senior Night as well, with 19 seniors -- Jordan Williams, Cameron Ontko, Chris Nicholls, Dylan Mohamed, Dave Douglas, Omar Omilabu, Brent Michaels, Chris Judge, Trevor Weis, Nick Moyer, Joe Coleman, Sam Kenney, Austin Albison, Brendan Quinn and Jake Irwin -- and the four team captains, Brandon Howe, Kenny Mitchell, Nick Dzubnar and Chris Lawrence -- honored in a pregame ceremony.
Cal Poly wraps up the regular season next Saturday at the University of San Diego. Kickoff in Torero Stadium will be at 4 p.m. The Mustangs opened the 2012 and 2013 seasons with 41-14 and 38-16 victories, respectively. San Diego is 8-1 overall and tied for first place with Jacksonville in the Pioneer League at 6-1.
