Big plays were the way Saturday for the Cal Poly football team.
The Mustangs relied on four big plays — plays of at least 20 yards — to score two touchdowns and set up two more in a 28-7 Big Sky Conference win over Northern Colorado at Nottingham Field in Greeley.
Cal Poly’s victory in front of more than 4,000 fans spoiled UNC’s homecoming festivities in the Big Sky Conference opener for both teams. The Mustangs’ win was their first Big Sky road victory since November 2019, also against UNC. Cal Poly defeated the Bears 28-21 on Nov. 23, 2019, at Nottingham Field.
UNC’s loss kept the Bears winless in five games this season and extended the program losing streak to 17 games dating to the last game of the 2022 season.
The Bears’ struggles against Cal Poly were again on offense and consistent with the issues the team has dealt with for much of the season. UNC started a new quarterback for the fourth time in five games because of injuries at the position.
Freshman Kaiden Box drew the start for the Mustangs, following in the footsteps of Peter Costelli, Jonah Chong and Hank Gibbs.
Costelli, a senior from California, was named the starter before the season began. He played at Incarnate Word in the opener Aug. 31 and at Colorado State a week later before suffering a knee injury late in the game.
Chong got the nod the following week for the home opener Sept. 14 against Abilene Christian. Chong, a 6-foot fifth-year transfer lacking the size of Costelli, was ineffective against the Wildcats. UNC late in the game turned to Hank Gibbs, last year’s backup, and he nearly led a come-from-behind win in the Bears’ most competitive game of the season.
Gibbs, a graduate transfer from Wyoming, earned the start last week at Stephen F. Austin for the final nonconference game of the season. He was knocked out of the game in the first series with a shoulder injury.
Gibbs was on the sideline Saturday wearing a sling on his right arm. Costelli was also on the sidelines with a brace on his left leg while engaging with Box, the other quarterbacks and offensive coordinator Justin Walterscheid.
Box, a pocket passer who enrolled in January from Skyline High in Longmont, had a tough day in his collegiate debut. He finished 2 of 8 for 11 yards passing, a performance Bears coach Ed Lamb said “wasn’t all on him.”
Box doesn’t have the mobility of the other three quarterbacks and eventually gave way for the majority of snaps to graduate student Kia’i Keone. Keone came in last week and quarterbacked the Bears for the majority of the game at Stephen F. Austin after Gibbs was hurt.
Lamb said the pre-game plan was to get Box 80-90% of the snaps against Cal Poly, but that changed as the game went on and the Bears were unable to move the ball consistently.
UNC had 213 total yards of offense with 126 passing and 87 net rushing yards. Lamb said run game was an area the Bears had to win against Cal Poly, though the Mustangs have been tough against the run all season.
Cal Poly (2-2) had 492 yards of total offense, and it was a balanced showing with 290 yards on the ground and 202 yards passing.
“I think they had the luxury of patience, first of all,” Lamb said, noting the Mustangs’ 14-0 lead in the first quarter. “I think they improved their running game. I think they played a few more rushers than they did (before). … I was really impressed with their effort. They were coming off a bye week and it showed. They were fresh.”
Keone was 14 of 20 for 115 yards — the highest passing total for the team since Costelli went out at CSU. Keone also ended the day as the Bears’ leading rusher with 55 net yards on 16 carries.
“That’s our task, is to find a better way for our current players to win,” Lamb said, including Cal Poly’s run game in his assessment. “We have injuries all over. We’re not unique. A lot of teams have injuries, but fairly unusual in the way we’ve gone through quarterbacks here early in the season.”
Keone has shown the last couple of weeks that he’s the guy among the available quarterbacks to play the position, according to Lamb. The Bears now have to figure out how to design an offense and game plan around him.
“That’s one thing we haven’t done,” Lamb said. “We put a lot of emphasis into Kaiden this week, and it’s a big task to get that done in a week.”
UNC plays nationally ranked Montana State on Oct. 5 in Bozeman. The Bobcats were 4-0 and scheduled to play at Idaho State late Saturday afternoon in Pocatello.
Cal Poly scored on plays of 95 and 53 yards in the first quarter. Mustangs quarterback Jaden Jones threw a 95-yard touchdown to Michael Briscoe, and Jones went up the middle of the field on the 53-yard touchdown run.
UNC got on the scoreboard in the third quarter on a Keone 2-yard short touchdown run. The touchdown was set up by a blocked punt by defensive back Zach Pekarek with 9 minutes, 6 seconds left in the quarter. Franky Morales recovered the ball and picked up five yards on the return to the Cal Poly 15.
Keone scored three plays later. The touchdown was his first for UNC.
Jones connected with receiver Giancarlo Woods for a 47-yard completion in the third quarter. Four plays later, Richie Watts scored Cal Poly’s third touchdown on a 2-yard run with 4:55 left in the quarter.
Cal Poly back Zion Hall set up the Mustangs’ fourth score with a 29-yard run late in the fourth quarter.
Watts threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to Evan Burkhart with 3:20 remaining.
Lamb said UNC is “playing with the weight of the world on its shoulders” defensively at this point in the season. Lamb said the Bears missed tackles against Cal Poly. With the quarterback issues, the Bears came into the game averaging 12 points per game — leaving the defensive guys feeling “they have to pitch a shut to win,” Lamb said.
“That’s no way to play defense or football at all,” the coach added. “We have to have more fun. Maybe this will be the catalyst for that.”
Sam Iongo-Amituanai led UNC with nine tackles. Keenan Guthrie and Marcus Howard each had seven tackles and Guthrie had an interception.
Lamb has said all season that the team has goals for its year. One of those was to win all of its home games at Nottingham Field. With the home loss a couple of weeks ago to Abilene Christian, the Bears had to reset and readjust those goals, and the adjustments will continue.
“We’ve talked about goals all season long,” Lamb said. “I think goals are important. We talked about resetting the goals with conference play starting. We came up short today with what should’ve been our best opportunity here at home with the first conference game to set the season on the right track.
“If there’s a silver lining to coming up short there, it’s that now it’s just do you love football? Do you love football, and can we put together a winning effort week by week?”
Cal Poly 28, Northern Colorado 7
Cal Poly — 14 – 0 – 7 – 7 — 28
UNC — 0 – 0 – 7 – 0 — 7
Scoring Summary
1st Q, 5:08 — CP Jaden Jones 95 pass to Michael Briscoe. (Noah Serna kick), CP 7-0. 2 plays, 95 yards, :45 seconds.
1st Q, :01 — CP Jones 53 run (Serna kick), CP 14-0. 7 plays, 92 yards, 3:33.
3rd Q, 8:17 — UNC Kia’i Keone 10 run (Hunter Green kick), CP 14-7. 3 plays, 15 yards, :49.
3rd Q, 4:55 — CP Richie Watts 2 run (Serna), CP 21-7. 7 plays, 75 yards, 3:22.
4th Q, 3:20 — CP Watts 5 pass to Evan Burkhart (Serna kick), CP 28-7. 14 plays, 94 yards, 7:57.
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