Cal Poly football runs over UC Davis, 34-16

Stephan Teodosescu
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Coming off two straight losses in which the Cal Poly football team scored 27 combined points, head coach Tim Walsh said his team would need to regain its identity on offense with the run game entering the week.

In the Battle for the Golden Horseshoe against UC Davis on Saturday, the Mustangs did just that.

Sophomore Chris Brown set a program record for single-game rushing yards by a quarterback as he scampered for 195 yards and three touchdowns in a 34-16 win against the rival Aggies.

Brown, the third-stringer entering the season, started in Davis because of an injury to quarterback Dano Graves.

While their path to a conference title was made tougher with wins by conference-leaders Eastern Washington and Montana State earlier in the day, the Mustangs (4-5, 3-2 Big Sky) stayed afloat in the Big Sky standings with the victory. Cal Poly is now tied for third with Sacramento State after the Hornets lost an overtime thriller against Montana on Saturday.

Against the Aggies, Brown finished the night completing one pass on just five attempts for 15 yards, while nine different Cal Poly players joined in on the run game as the Mustangs amassed 414 rushing yards.

Both senior Chris Nicholls and freshman slotback Kori Garcia scored touchdowns on the ground for the Mustangs as they pulled away with 21 second-half points. Cal Poly’s leading rusher junior slotback Kristaan Ivory carried the ball three times for 14 yards.

Quarterback Randy Wright led UC Davis going 18 of 31 passing for 188 yards and a touchdown. The senior also threw a pick to Cal Poly’s Alex Hubbard with less than 11 minutes to go in the game that eventually led to a Mustangs touchdown.

Gabe Manzanares ran for 141 yards on 29 carries and became the first UC Davis rusher to rack up 1,000 yards in a season since 2002.

Cal Poly returns to Alex G. Spanos Stadium on Saturday to take on Sacramento State. Kickoff is set for 6:05 p.m.