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Late rally by Aggies falls short

Published: Sunday, Sep. 23, 2012 - 12:00 am | Page 9C
Last Modified: Sunday, Sep. 23, 2012 - 2:00 pm

SAN LUIS OBISPO – The streak is over.

After posting three straight wins over the Cal Poly Mustangs in the Battle for the Golden Horseshoe, UC Davis couldn't keep it going. Despite a late comeback, the Aggies fell 28-20 Saturday in Alex G. Spanos Stadium.

"We came to win," head coach Bob Biggs said. "As it turned out, we did match up well. We just got behind, and we couldn't get enough points to get back and win the game."

The Aggies were able to put points up early, capping a 10-play, 57-yard drive with a 39-yard field goal to go up 3-0 in the first quarter. On their next drive, the Aggies kept it moving. Randy Wright completed a 67-yard touchdown pass to Corey Galindo to put UC Davis up 10-0.

"That was a play we've been drawing up all week," Galindo said. "We knew we wanted to get there early, we knew we wanted to strike first. We got a perfect look for it, and it worked out."

Then the Mustangs answered. Akaninyene Umoh took off for a 51-yard touchdown in the first, and Deonte Williams scored on a five-yard run in the second to catapult the Mustangs ahead 14-10. They added 14 more unanswered points en route to a 28-10 lead.

But, as it has so many times, UC Davis mounted a comeback late. They added a late two-yard score from Courtney Williams, capping a 97-yard, 14-play drive in the fourth quarter, and a 41-yard field goal on back-to-back drives to pull within eight points.

That was as close as they'd get. Wright couldn't find anyone on fourth and 10 with less than two minutes in the game, and the Mustangs iced the clock.

"I was 100 percent sure we were going to tie the game and head this thing into overtime," Wright said. "It's a good team, tough loss. We just got static in the second and third quarter, tried to pull déjà vu all over again in the fourth, and it wasn't enough."

That hadn't been the case for the Aggies in the past three seasons. After falling to Cal Poly 51-28 in 2008, the Aggies reeled off three straight wins over the Mustangs. They handed Cal Poly a 23-10 loss in 2009 and a come-from-behind season-ending 22-21 loss in 2010 and posted a 24-17 win over the Mustangs last year.

"Rivalry games like this, it's what makes college football fun," Galindo said.

UC Davis will head home to host Big Sky Conference games against Weber State next weekend, and powerhouse Montana State the weekend after.

© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.

Read more articles by Brian De Los Santos



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