SportsDirect Inc. staff
Nov 29, 2014
BYU 42, California 35: Christian Stewart threw for career highs of 433 yards and five touchdowns, including two to Jordan Leslie in the fourth quarter, as the visiting Cougars prevailed in a shootout.
Stewart completed 23-of-38 passes and Leslie had five grabs for 155 yards for BYU (8-4), which has won four straight games. Mitchell Juergens had seven catches for 107 yards and two TDs as the Cougars rolled up 540 yards of total offense.
Jared Goff completed 38-of-60 passes for 393 yards and four TDs for California (5-7), which would have been bowl eligible with a win after a 1-11 2013 campaign. Kenny Lawler had career highs of 12 receptions and three touchdowns and added 138 yards receiving, and Daniel Lasco rushed for 130 yards for the Bears, who had 566 total yards and held the ball for almost 35 minutes.
BYU snapped a fourth-quarter tie when Stewart hit Leslie in stride for an 83-yard TD pass with 11:49 left in the game, but Cal went 80 yards and tied it 35-35 on a 23-yard TD pass from Goff to Trevor Davis with 9:17 left. After both defenses forced a punt, Stewart took the Cougars 66 yards on five plays, finding Leslie for a 38-yard TD with 2:39 left before Goff drove the ball to the BYU 9-yard line but threw four straight incompletions to Lawler to end it.
Goff threw three short scoring passes to Lawler and BYU got a 1-yard run by Paul Lasike and a 47-yard scoring pass from Stewart to Juergens as the Bears took a 21-14 lead into the half. Stewart drove the Cougars 85 yards and finished the drive with a 22-yard TD to Algernon Brown to even the contest nearly six minutes into the third before Tre Watson scored on a 9-yard run and Stewart hit Juergens on a 9-yard pass to tie the contest 28-28 entering the fourth.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Goff set the Bears' single-season passing TD record with 35. Pat Barnes held the previous Cal record with 31 during the 1996 season. …Lasco finished with 1,115 yards for the season to become the Bears' first 1,000-yard rusher since Isi Sofele in 2011 (1,322). … Cal entered second in the Pac-12 Conference in scoring at 38.5 points per game while BYU ranked 34th in FBS at 35.6.