Fernando Mendoza threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score Saturday, leading California to a 31-10 victory over San Diego State.
Jaivian Thomas ran for 169 yards, and Kadarius Calloway had a touchdown run to give Cal (3-0) three straight wins to open the season for the first time since 2019.
The Bears defense did the rest, keeping the Aztecs (1-2) out of the end zone until the fourth quarter.
The Bears broke open a tight game in the third quarter with Thomas’ 57-yard run setting up Calloway’s 7-yard touchdown and Mendoza’s 20-yard TD pass to Corey Dyches capping a 90-yard drive.
Mendoza added a 15-yard TD pass to Nyziah Hunter in the fourth quarter.
The Aztecs, coming off a shutout loss to Oregon State, had no answers with Javance Tupou’ata-Johnson making his first career start at quarterback in place of the injured Danny O’Neil.
Tupou’ata-Johnson went 13 for 29 for 156 yards with his first touchdown pass, but two interceptions, a performance head coach Sean Lewis told San Diego Sports 760 was a “nice job managing the things that we asked him to do.”
Cal got stopped twice on fourth-and-1 tries in the second quarter but San Diego State was unable to take advantage. The Aztecs were forced to punt after taking over in Bears territory after stuffing the first try.
Tano Letuli then had an interception on the second that appeared to go for a pick-6 before being called back for an illegal block. San Diego State followed by converting a fake punt but had to punt after another fourth-down conversion was called back for holding.
The Aztecs ended up with 15 penalties for 120 yards; SDSU’s 13 penalties in the first half were tied for the most in any half for an FBS team in the last 10 seasons.
it was little better for Cal, which incurred 12 for 113 yards. Their fans even hurt them.
Cal students got their own team in trouble by repeatedly throwing cards used for stunts on the field despite several warnings. The Bears were penalized twice for it in the third quarter with one coming on a kickoff and the other giving the Aztecs a first down.
After a bye week, San Diego State next visits Central Michigan on Sept. 28.
