Cal Football Game Summary: Bears Beat Texas Southern in Home Opener

Cal beat.Texas Southern 35-3 before a crowd of 35,898 in the Bears’ home opener Saturday afternoon in Berkeley.

Cal's offense struggled early in the game, but dominated play from the middle of the second quarter on. Cal freshman quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele was not as impressive as he had been in the opener, but after throwing incompletions of his first four passes of the day, he went 26-for-33 for 259 yards the rest of the way. He did not have any touchdown passes and threw his first interception on a deflected pass.

One major negative occurrence for Cal was that linebacker Cade Uluave was ejected for targeting and will have to sit out the first half of next week's home game against Minnesota.

The summary:

CAL 35, TEXAS SOUTHERN 3

RECORDS: CAL (2-0), TEXAS SOUTHERN (0-2)

PLAYER OF THE GAME: Running back Kendrick Raphael. Sagapolutele could have been awarded this honor, but Raphael, a transfer from North Carolina State, had his first career 100-yard rushing gamer, finishing with 131 yards on the ground.

TURNING POINT: Cal led just 3-0 before it marched 86 yards for a touchdown and two-point conversion that gave the Bears an 11-0 lead with 1:19 left in the first half. On Texas Southern's ensuing possession, the Tigers drove to the Cal 22-yard line, but an interception by Hezekiah Masses ended that threat and kept Cal's lead at 11-0 at halftime.

CRITICAL PENALTY: Cal linebacker Cade Uluave, considered the Bears' best defensive player and a team captain, was called for targeting on his hit on the Texas Southern quarterback in the third quarter. He was ejected for the rest of the game for that infraction, and he will miss the first half of next week's home game against Minnesota as a result.

KEY PLAY 1: Cal’s Jacob De Jesus returned a punt 25 yards to the Texas Southern 29-yard line with 12:24 left in the first quarter. That led to Abram Murray’s 45-yard field goal, giving Cal a 3-0 lead with 11:37 remaining in the first quarter.

KEY PLAY 2: On a fourth-and-3 play from the Cal 35-yard line, Cal faked a punt, with T.J. Bollers taking the direct snap and running 9 yards for a first down at the 44-yard line. But the possession ended in a fumble as noted in Key Play 3.

KEY PLAY 3: On a second-and-2 play from the Texas Southern 35-yard line, Cal’s Brandon High Jr. fumbled. It was recovered by Texas Southern’s Michael Akins at the 36-yard line with 6:13 left in the first quarter.

KEY PLAY 4: On a second-and-8 play from the Cal 41-yard line, Cal’s Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele threw an pass that bounced off the intended receiver and was intercepted by Texas Southern’s Edric Whitley midway through the second quarter.

KEY PLAY 5: On a third-and-15 play from the Texas Southern 31-yard line, Sagapolutele completed a 19-yard pass to Mark Hamper, giving Cal a first own at the 12-yard line with 1:58 left in the first half. That led to Sagapolutele’s quarterback sneak for a 1-yard touchdown run and ended an 86-yard scoring drive. A two-point conversion on a Mason Mini run gave Cal an 11-0 lead with 1:19 left in the second quarter.

KEY PLAY 6: On Texas Southern’s first-down play from the Cal 22-yard line with 21 second remaining in the first half, KJ Cooper’s pass was intercepted by Cal’s Hezekiah Masses at the Cal 8-yard line and returned 28 yards.

KEY PLAY 7: .Sagapolutele completed a 27-yard pass to Jacob De Jesus to move the ball to the Texas Southern 1-yard line early in the third quarter.. Kendrick Raphael then scored on a 1-yard run to push Cal's lead to 18-0 with 9:38 left in the third quarter. Sagapolutele was 4-for-4 for 62 yards on that drive.

KEY PLAY 8: Cal's LJ Johnson Jr. ran 12 yards for as touchdown that put the Golden Bears ahead 25-0 with 5:27 left in the third quarter.

ALL BEARS 👊

Make that three unanswered touchdowns for @CalFootball!

📺 ACCNX pic.twitter.com/c55Sv1W9Rj
— ACC Football (@ACCFootball) September 7, 2025

KEY PLAY 9: Texas Southern's Christian Avelar kicked a 37-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter to reduce Cal's lead to 25-3.

KEY PLAY 10: Cal's Chase Meyer kicked a 43-yard field goal to give the Bears a 28-3 lead with 10:18 left in the fourth quarter.

KEY PLAY 11: Cal quarterback Devin Brown threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Jayden Dixon-Veal to give the Bears a 35-3 lead with 3:09 left in the game.

STAT OF THE GAME: After having just 48 yards of total offense in the first quarter, Cal finished with 459 yards of offense.

INDIVIDUAL STAT OF THE GAME I: Cal running back Kendrick Raphael averaged 7.3 yards per carry on 18 attempts. He finished with 131 rushing yards. No other Cal player rushed for more than 14 yards.

INDIVIDUAL STAT OF THE GAME II: Cal redshirt freshman linebacker Luke Ferrelli recorded 11 tackles, including half of a tackle for loss.

INDIVIDUAL STAT OF THE GAME III: Cal cornerback Hezekiah Masses picked up his second interception of the season.

QUARTERBACK STATISTICS: Cal’s Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele was 26-for-37 for 259 yards, no touchdowns and one interception; Devin Brown was 2-for-2 for 27 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions. Texas Southern’s KJ Cooper was 20-for-36 for 138 yards, no touchdowns and one interception.

WHAT IT MEANS: Cal was expected to win this game comfortably, so this win does not improve the Bears’ resume. A loss would have had a major negative impact. But the win simply means Cal is 2-0 for the second straight year and for the sixth time in Justin Wilcox’s nine seasons as the Bears’ head coach. Cal’s best start under Wilcox was 2019, when the Bears won their first four games. That was also the last time Cal finished with a winning record, going 8-5.

CAL'S BOWL BAROMETER: Cal’s chance of landing bowl berth remains at 65%. The Bears were expected to win this game and need just four more wins in their remaining10 games to get a postseason berth. However, Cal’s biggest challenges lie ahead.

CAL’S ACC TITLE BAROMETER: Cal’s chance of winning the ACC title stands at 15%. The Bears have two more nonconference games before starting ACC play. Cal was picked to finish15th in the 17-team ACC in the preseason media poll, and the only reason Cal’s conference title chances are not lower than 15% is because Cal does not face Miami, Clemson, Georgia Tech or Florida State this season.

NEXT GAME: Cal (2-0) vs. Minnesota (2-0) at Cal’s Memorial Stadium in Berkeley on Saturday, September 13. Kickoff: 7:30 p.m. TV: ESPN. Minnesota defeated Buffalo 23-10 in its opener on August 28, and beat Northwestern State, an FCS school, by a score of 66-0 on Saturday in its second game.

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