Michael Briscoe was untouchable on Sunday, Sept 14.
The senior receiver caught six passes and took four of them to the house for touchdowns, single-handedly contributing 24 of the Mustangs’ points in their 56-7 rout of Western Oregon in their home opener in San Luis Obispo.
Last season’s affair between these two teams was a lot closer. The Mustangs (2-1) had taken a one possession lead into the halftime break against the Wolves (1-1), who tied the game in the second half before Cal Poly could pull away.
This year there was no contest, and from the jump Cal Poly dominated, forcing a punt and then scoring on their first play via a Ty Dieffenbach 70-yard home run pass to Briscoe.
“We are a lot better football team than we have been,” head coach Paul Wulff said. “We’re definitely growing and we’re more explosive, scoring more points than we have in the past.”
Briscoe had his fingerprints all over the game, at times in the first half having more receiving yards than Western Oregon had total yards.
He finished the game hauling in all six of his targets for 148 yards and four touchdowns, good for career highs in both categories.
Just two minutes after his first touchdown Briscoe and Dieffenbach connected again, this time for a 25-yard score.
A couple of pitch and catch touchdowns later in the second quarter, one from Dieffenbach and the other from Anthony Grigsby Jr., closed his night.
“Last year they played a lot of quarters [coverage],” Briscoe said. “We just planned to attack that quarters coverage”
Grigsby Jr. came on in near the end of the first half, as has been standard for the Mustangs this season, and led two touchdown drives. The first drive ended with him running it in himself and the other was the touchdown pass to Briscoe to end the half 35-0.
Four different Mustangs quarterbacks saw the field Sunday, continuing their early trend of not having a full-time signal caller to start out the season.
Cal Poly didn’t lose a step coming out of the halftime break with Trey Wilson scoring his first collegiate touchdown on a 2-yard plunge.
Western Oregon responded by putting together their one and only scoring drive, cashing in on fourth down with a 29-yard touchdown pass.
Quarterback Jackson Akins got some of the second half drives, leading a touchdown drive in the fourth that was capped by a Kendric Sanders 6-yard dive.
Cal Poly scored as the game was winding down with a 74-yard pick six by Kresean Kizzy to make it 56-7.
The passing and running games were both in sync, as Dieffenbach and Grigsby Jr. combined for 15-22 passing for 330 yards and four touchdowns.
The running back duo of Wilson and Tyrei Washington did not have a high volume of touches, but were efficient when they did get the football.
The running back room as a whole has been one of the bigger question marks of the team. Washington and Wilson took large steps forward into alleviating some of those concerns, but Sanders and Malachi Brown showed promise in the second half.
“Its a point of emphasis, we have to get better than we are right now,” Wulff said. “We have to make serious headway here as we get into conference play.”
Defensively the team was solid as the Wolves gained yardage throughout the game but the Mustangs defense came up big on third and fourth down.
“This week was a bounceback week,” linebacker Mikey D’Amato said after the game. “As a group it was just go out and kill and don’t let them score.”
Briscoe and the rest of the offense will be looking to build on their momentum in their last non-conference game against Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches, TX, on Saturday Sept. 20 at 5 p.m.
