BYU beat Cal 50-14 Friday in a snowy Provo Friday.
In a game that was moved from Saturday to Friday to avoid the LDS Conference, BYU controlled a large amount of possession and won several of the physical battles in the victory.
Cal actually looked to score first and did well to keep the ball alive and avoid getting dragged into a slog to get over the BYU line. The Bears were held up, however, and BYU was able to clear. Still Cal had the majority of possession and territory in the first 10 minutes and seemed to be on the front foot.
It was then BYU that got the first points. A solid kick to touch on a penalty from Cole Semu and a maul took it methodically 15 meters to paydirt. A big break from wing Connor Olvera, aided by Gabe Mahionga set up a ruck deep in Cal territory and the ball was sent quickly to the right for wing Tielu Sagala to score in the corner for the second.
Another long break, this one by Wyatt Parry along with flanker Brook Vaitohi put BYU in the Cal half and after a series of phases hooker Lilo Clark picked up from a ruck and dove over.
It remained 19-0 into halftime, but BYU made it 26-0 pretty quickly after the second half kicked off with a nice break from scrumhalf Strider Fountaine and a good finished in traffic by flanker Carter Beck. The restart produced a worrying collision as BYU lock Kyle Klintworth reached for the ball and Cal flanker Jon Puckett leaped for it. It could have been bad for Klintworth, but in the end Puckett seemed to get the worst of the exchange—he was escorted off the field and Cal was penalized for good measure.
