BERKELEY — Ninety-eight yards of Big Game history gave Cal its fourth straight victory over Stanford and a bowl eligibility for a second year in a row.
Trailing all day and down 21-16 with 7:45 to play at Memorial Stadium, the Bears marched 98 yards in 11 plays with Fernando Mendoza firing a 22-yard touchdown pass to Jonathan Brady with 2:40 left.
Cal converted the two-point conversion on a shovel pass to Jaydn Ott and the Bears claimed a 24-21 victory in the 127th edition of the rivalry before 52,428 fans on Saturday afternoon.
The Bears’ defense then got the back when Stanford quarterback Ashton Daniels threw incomplete on fourth down from his own 20-yard line, and Cal (6-5, 1-5 ACC) ran the clock out.
The Bears trailed 14-0 in the first quarter and were down 21-7 midway through the third period.
Mendoza threw two of his three touchdowns in the fourth quarter, both of them to Brady, a junior transfer from New Mexico State. Mendoza finished 25-of-36 for 299 yards without an interception, a nice bounce-back after his worst game of the season a week earlier in the Bears’ 33-25 loss to Syracuse.
Cal closes its regular season next Saturday in Dallas against No. 13 SMU, but the Bears are almost assured now of playing in the postseason.
With the win, Justin Wilcox joins Andy Smith, Stub Allison and Jeff Tedford as the only Cal coaches to win four consecutive Big Games.
Cal got within striking distance on its first possession of the fourth quarter, assembling an 11-play, 71-yard drive during which Mendoza completed five of seven passes for 70 yards.
He got the last 30 yards on a scramble play where he found Brady alone near the left sideline and whistled a TD pass to him with 10:09 left.
The Bears tried a 2-point conversion but Mendoza’s pass to Trond Grizzell was incomplete, leaving them down 21-16.
Stanford added to its 14-7 halftime lead on its first possession of the third quarter, using some trickery to get into the end zone.
At the end of an 11-play, 52-yard drive, short-yardage quarterback Justin Lamson took the snap and lateraled the ball to wide receiver Micah Ford, who delivered a 2-yard touchdown pass to freshman Emmett Mosley V with 6:33 left in the third quarter.
The Bears crept within 21-10 on a 46-yard field goal by Ryan Coe with 47 seconds left in the third period. That 54-yard drive was highlighted by a 30-yard pass from Mendoza to Grizzell.
The weather turned nice and the crowd filled in the stadium as the game got under way but the Bears didn’t appear ready to play.
Stanford scored on its first two possessions, effortlessly going 75 yards in 12 plays, then 54 yards in eight plays. Cardinal quarterback Ashton Daniels was 9-for-9 passing for 87 yards on the two drives before Lamson, a short-yardage QB, came in to score on runs of 1 and 2 yards, the latter with 1:27 left in the opening period.
The Bears went nowhere on their first two chances with the ball but after forcing a punt on Stanford’s third possession Cal finally came to life.
Mendoza triggered a four-play, 82-yard scoring drive with a 50-yard scramble to the Stanford 32 and a penalty against the Cardinal advanced the ball to the 22. His run was the longest by a Cal quarterback in at least 25 years, according to Cal athletics.
Three plays later, Mendoza found Grizzell in the left corner of the end zone with a 16-yard touchdown pass that cut the margin to 14-7 with 11:04 left in the second period.
Daniels was just 1-for-5 for 3 yards in the second quarter after his hot start.
Each team missed a long field goal try in an otherwise quiet second quarter, Stanford’s Emmet Kenney from 53 yards, Cal’s Coe from 51.