Saturday, September 12, 2009

AP: Vereen, Best help Cal clobber Eastern Washington

Running back Shane Vereen ran for three touchdowns and Jahvid Best carried the ball 17 times for 144 yards and accounted for two scores as the 10th-ranked California Golden Bears defeated the Eastern Washington Eagles, 59-7, at Memorial Stadium.  In the first meeting ever between these two teams, California (2-0) took the resounding win after quarterback Kevin Riley completed 13 of 20 passes for 148 yards and one touchdown. Covaughn DeBoskie-Johnson recorded 11 carries for 92 yards and a touchdown.  "We started off a little slow, but then we got to what we do," Best said. "Things started opening up for us. We felt like we've done a lot of great things, but we still have some things to clean up. We're happy where we're at right now."

Eastern Washington (1-1) quarterback Matt Nichols threw for 195 yards and a touchdown while completing 23-of-31 attempts. Eagles receiver Tony Davis had eight catches for 71 yards and Nathan Overbay finished with seven receptions and 62 yards.  "A lot of people know that the game was not a big blowout like the score showed at the end," Nichols said. "We wanted to come out and give them a scare in the first half and show them that we were here to play. I think that if one or two plays had gone our way and if we had gone into halftime with a little bit closer score it would have been nice. In games like these you have to have big plays go your way and that didn't happen for us today."

Cal opened the scoring in the first quarter when Riley's one-yard sneak for a touchdown closed a 35-yard drive with 11:02 remaining.  Eastern Washington answered with an 83-yard drive that concluded with a four- yard touchdown pass from Nichols to Grant Williams with 6:30 left in the first quarter. It was the Eagles' only score of the contest.  The first quarter ended in a 7-7 tie.

Link to rest of article.

No comments: