Cal Poly Football opened Big Sky Conference play with a 28-7 win at Northern Colorado on Saturday.
The Mustangs moved to 2-2 (1-0 Big Sky) on the season after their convincing win against the Bears (0-5, 0-1).
With the win, Cal Poly has won back-to-back games for the first time since the 2018 season when they defeated Idaho State and Southern Utah in the season’s final two weeks.
With 5:53 left in the first quarter, redshirt junior quarterback Jaden Jones entered the game and never looked back as the Mustang offense exploded for a season-high 492 yards.
Including 290 yards of rushing with four touchdowns, two on the ground and two in the air.
Jones was 7-for-14 on passing for 189 yards and a touchdown while rushing four times for 74 yards and a touchdown.
He led a balanced attack accompanied by redshirt freshman running back Aiden Ramos, who rushed 23 times for 120 yards.
Jones was subbed in after two pedestrian drives started by redshirt sophomore quarterback Bo Kelly, with one ending in a missed 41-yard field goal.
He found himself backed up on his five-yard yard line for the Mustangs’ third possession.
A hard run fake to the left, Jones straightened up in the pocket on play action and rifled a ball down the middle of the field to redshirt senior receiver Michael Briscoe for a 95-yard touchdown to get on the board first.
Briscoe ended the game with 108 yards on three receptions and a touchdown.
On the other side of the ball, the Mustangs had their best defensive game of the season, only letting up one score on a very short field due to a Bear’s punt block in the third quarter.
The defense finished with three sacks and four pass deflections, holding the Bears to 213 total yards.
A Cal Poly team that has struggled to stop the run at times held Northern Colorado to 87 yards riding the play of star senior defensive end Elijah Ponder’s monster seven-tackle game.
Cal Poly’s defensive highlight came at the start of the fourth quarter, as the Bears marched down to the six-yard line, within striking distance of making it a one-score game.
After two run-defensive holds, the secondary forced an incompletion and a turnover on downs to keep the lead 21-7.
The Mustangs responded with a 14-play, 94-yard touchdown drive that lasted eight minutes to ice the game.
The drive concluded with an eight-yard touchdown pass from wildcat quarterback redshirt sophomore quarterback Richie Watts to senior wide receiver Evan Burkhart, extending the lead to 28-7.
Watts ended the game with a rushing and passing touchdown.
Other standouts were redshirt senior wideout Giancarlo Woods, with three catches for 67 yards, and redshirt junior running back Zion Hall, who racked up 77 yards on 15 carries.
Cal Poly will look to extend its win streak next Saturday, Oct. 5, when it hosts Idaho State at 5 p.m. at Mustang Memorial Field.