Pasadena, CA – UCLA used a big second quarter to setup a comfortable 34-10 victory over California in a Pac-12 Conference, rare Sunday college football fixture at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.
The game was only announced this week after the orginal fixtures involving both schools were canceled due to positive cases of COVID-19 and related contact tracing.
On Sunday, Dorian Thompson-Robinson was 14 of 26 on completed passes for 196 yards and three touchdowns with one interception, and ran for another 52 yards and a score for the Bruins (1-1, 1-1 Pac-12), who bounced back from the defeat against Colorado.
California took the lead early when Dario Longhetto converted a 31 yard field goal, but Thompson-Robinson run for a close-range score and then connected with Charles Njoku from 27 yards to give UCLA a 14-3 lead.
Golden Bears’ Chase Garbers rushed for a score to close the deficit to 14-10, but back-to-back touchdowns by the Bruins saw them outscoring California 20-7 in the second quarter.
Thompson-Robinson connected with Chase Cota with a six yard scoring pass and then found Kyle Philips from five yards for another score, as UCLA led 27-10 at halftime.
Brittain Brown capped the scoring early in the fourth quarter with a 31 yard touchdown run to seal the victory for the Bruins.
Demetric Felton ran for 107 yards and Greg Dulcich had three catches for 80 in a winning contributing.
The game was a season opener for the Golden Bears (0-1, 0-1).
“We are disappointed we didn’t perform better,” Cal head coach Justin Wilcox said. “I have to do a better job helping these guys prepare. I believe in our team.
“I know we’re going to get better. All those guys are disappointed. I know I am that we didn’t perform as well as we thought we could. I think we all could be better, and every single guy will tell you that.”
Chase Garbers was 18 of 33 for 122 yards and one interception in the defeat for California, which tallied just 176 total yards on offense today.
Todday’s game was the first regular-season college football fixture on an NFL Sunday since the 2017 season.
