Stars respond to benching, rally Cal to win
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Ryan Harrison kicked a 19-yard field goal on the next play to put the Falcons up 27-21, but Jordan’s 52-yard catch came soon after.
Cal freshman Kevin Riley, who took over for Nate Longshore in the second quarter, was 16-for-19 passing for 269 yards and three TDs and ran for a score. Longshore had been hampered by a sprained right ankle and Tedford wanted to get Riley some action.
Riley came in on the same series as Jackson and Jordan, a four-play TD drive, and played the rest of the game.
“He kind of had the hot hand,” Tedford said. “We felt like he had a pretty good feel for it, so we just left him in.”
Air Force was then forced to punt for the first time, and the Bears drove 70 yards in 10 plays, Riley’s 5-yard pass to Lavelle Hawkins making it 21-14.
Cal last had six straight winning seasons from 1947-52. The latest streak, which includes five consecutive bowl appearances for the first time in school history, has come since Tedford took over a team coming off a 1-10 season.
After Carney’s 7-yard TD pass to Travis Dekker for a 14-0 lead capped a 65-yard drive, the Falcons kicked off into a stiff wind.
The high-arching kick bounced off a Bears player who apparently never saw the ball while he retreated to blocking formation. Aaron Kirchoff recovered at the Bears 40, and five plays later Jim Ollis, who ran for 101 yards on 16 carries, scored on an 8-yard run.
The Falcons, denied their first double-digit win season since 1998, won six of its last seven regular-season games under first-year coach Calhoun and played in its first bowl since 2002.
“We fired every piece of ammunition we had,” Calhoun said. “We don’t have anything left in the arsenal, that’s for sure.”
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