Cal Poly Wins Home Opener Over San Diego 38-16
Senior quarterback Dano Graves passed for two touchdowns and ran for another as Cal Poly overcame a 13-10 deficit late in the second quarter to defeat the University of San Diego 38-16 in a non-conference football game Saturday afternoon in Alex G. Spanos Stadium.
Graves connected with Kyle Lewis on a 57-yard pass with six seconds left in the first half, hit Kori Garcia with a 27-yard touchdown pass less than three minutes into the third quarter and rambled 33 yards through a big hole at left tackle for the final score of the game for Cal Poly.
The decision left both teams with 1-1 records. Cal Poly is now 5-0 in its all-time series against San Diego.
Junior fullback Joe Protheroe (pictured above) earned his second 100-yard game of the season and sixth of his Mustang career, rushing for 131 yards on 18 carries and scoring Cal Poly’s first touchdown of the game on a five-yard run with a minute to go in the opening period.
Coupled with Casey Sublette‘s 39-yard field goal, Cal Poly opened up a 10-0 lead before San Diego mounted its rally.
Ross Dwelley caught a pair of touchdown passes from Anthony Lawrence spanning 1 and 13 yards in the second quarter as the Toreros took the lead from the Mustangs, 13-10.
Cal Poly, however, outscored San Diego 28-3 the rest of the way.
Protheroe contributed to the Mustang uprising with a one-yard touchdown run midway through the third quarter.
San Diego’s only points of the second half came on a 21-yard field goal by Patrick Murray 96 seconds into the fourth quarter.
Graves (pictured at left) came close to the 100-yard mark for the second time this season. Rushing for 140 yards a week ago at Nevada, Graves added 98 yards on 14 trips against San Diego. He also completed five of eight passes for 130 yards and two scores.
Five different Mustangs caught one pass.
San Diego was paced by Lawrence as he completed 15 of 24 passes for 127 yards and two touchdowns. Jonah Hodges rushed for 93 yards on a dozen carries and Dwelley was the top Torero receiver with nine catches for 97 yards.
Mustang senior linebacker Chris Santini made nine tackles and combined with Anders Turner on one sack. Junior cornerback Kevin Griffin added eight tackles while junior cornerback Jerek Rosales notched three pass breakups.
San Diego strong safety Colton Giorgi earned 16 tackles, linebacker Alec Moreno 12 and nickel back Max Michaels 10.
There were no turnovers in the game.
Cal Poly visits South Dakota State next Saturday for a 4 p.m. PDT kickoff in Brookings, S.D.
