Cal Poly Falls Short at Northern Colorado

Saturday, October 17

Greeley, CO

5 P.M.

4-4 , 3-2

Northern Colorado

3-5 , 2-3

Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final F
Cal Poly	7	3	8	0	18
Northern Colo.	0	14	7	7	28

Anthony Grigsby Jr., Northern Colorado, 101726

Cal Poly Falls Short at Northern Colorado

10/17/2026 10:14:00 PM | Football

Box Score

GREELEY, Colo. — Quarterback Anthony Grigsby Jr. passed for 300 yards and the Mustangs attempted to mount a second-half comeback, but three turnovers proved to be costly for the Cal Poly football team in a 28-18 defeat at Northern Colorado on Saturday night.

“We had too many penalties and too many turnovers,” Cal Poly football head coach Tim Skipper said after the game, “… it’s going to make it very hard to beat teams when that happens. We learned a valuable lesson here. They pride themselves on physicality, we do too, and they won that battle today, and we’re going to have to learn from this, pick our heads back up and go next week.”

With the loss, Cal Poly moves to 4-4 overall and 3-2 in Big Sky play. The Mustangs are now tied with Montana for fourth place in the conference standings, one game back of Northern Arizona, Weber State and Montana State who are all tied for first with one loss each in Big Sky play.

The Mustangs struck first in the game when running back Jaden Green, the FCS leader in all-purpose yards per game, punched in a 1-yard touchdown on Cal Poly’s second drive.

Cal Poly looked primed to add to its early 7-0 lead following a Northern Colorado (3-5, 2-3 Big Sky) three-and-out, but an interception on 4th and 3 from the UNC 26-yard-line ended that pursuit. The Bears went down on the ensuing possession and scored a touchdown to tie the game at 7-7 early in the second quarter.

The Mustangs muffed a punt that led to another Northern Colorado touchdown and kicker Josue Lopez made a 23-yard field goal with 11 seconds left in the second quarter to make it 14-10 at halftime in favor of the Bears.

UNC scored a touchdown on the opening drive of the second half to build a 21-10 advantage, but Cal Poly responded on the next drive with a touchdown of its own. Wide receiver Tayvion McCoy took a reverse at the 10-yard-line and weaved his way through the Northern Colorado defense and into the end zone. Cal Poly converted the two-point conversion on a pass from Grigsby to tight end Alek Marshall to cut the deficit to 21-18.

On its ensuing possession, Northern Colorado drove all the way down to the Mustang 10-yard-line before linebacker Chase Martin intercepted a pass at the 1-yard-line to give the ball back to the Mustangs.

Cal Poly looked to capitalize on the mistake, but a fumble near midfield ended a promising drive. UNC converted the turnover into 7 points nine plays later to take a 28-18 lead and Cal Poly was never able to draw any closer for the remainder of the game.

Northern Colorado scored 21 points off of Cal Poly’s three turnovers on the night.

McCoy finished with nine receptions for 128 yards.

Cal Poly returns home to host Utah Tech at 2 p.m. next Saturday, Oct. 24, at Spanos Stadium.