Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele passed for 413 yards and three touchdowns in just more than a half and Adam Mohammed scored three times in the first quarter as Cal romped past Wagner 49-7 on Saturday afternoon in Berkeley, Calif.
The Golden Bears (2-1) built on a road win on Sept. 12 at Syracuse with a dominating performance against the Seahawks (1-3), an FCS squad that gave up 87 points to James Madison in its previous game.
Sagapolutele completed 27 of his 33 passes and distributed the ball to eight receivers before being lifted after Cal’s first drive of the third quarter. Mohammed finished with 91 yards on 13 carries and Chase Hendricks had nine catches for 98 yards.
Benjamin Newman passed for 86 yards and a TD to lead the Seahawks’ offense. Cal had 626 yards of total offense to Wagner’s 198.
Cal set the tone by scoring touchdowns on all four of its possessions in the first quarter. Mohammed did the bulk of the damage with three scores, rambling home from 28 yards out on the game’s opening drive, adding an 8-yard TD rush on the second march and a 65-yard scoring catch from Sagapolutele on the fourth.
In between, the Golden Bears’ Kylon Grayes took a short pass from Sagapolutele and ripped off an 80-yard touchdown that was followed by a two-point conversion run by Mason Mini. Cal finished the first quarter up 29-0 and outgained the Seahawks 305-32 over the initial 15 minutes of play.
Wagner got on the board on an 8-yard TD pass from Newman to Malik Redd with 11:30 left in the second quarter that capped a 12-play, 65-yard march. The Golden Bears responded with a 38-yard field goal by Towns McGough and a 16-yard TD touchdown throw from Sagapolutele to Cooper Perry to push the lead to 39-7 with 4:08 left in the half.
Cal added an 8-yard TD run by Ashten Emory on its first drive of the third quarter and Chase Meyer kicked a 37-yard field goal with 3:55 left as the Golden Bears took their collective foot off the accelerator.
