Two weeks ago, the ASU football team captured one of the more dramatic wins in school history when a 50-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Danny Sullivan to senior wide receiver Chris McGaha with five seconds left lifted the Sun Devils to a 24-17 home victory over Washington.

Saturday’s contest against California at Sun Devil Stadium also came down to the final seconds — but this time, ASU was on the wrong end of the decision.

Homecoming and Halloween were spoiled for the Sun Devils when they lost to the Golden Bears 23-21 on a 24-yard field goal by sophomore Giorgio Tavecchio with 21 seconds to play.

State Press Television
By Isaac Easley

“This is a tough loss — one of the harder ones I’ve been around,” ASU coach Dennis Erickson said. “We felt like we could win this football game, and we came in with that attitude, and then to lose it at the end’s very difficult. Mentally, they’re drained. We’re all drained. It’s hard—the mental state is not good.”

Cal took advantage of an ASU defense that had been on the field for nearly 10 minutes longer than the Golden Bears when it got the ball with 3:16 remaining and orchestrated an 11-play, 74-yard drive to get the go-ahead score.

“They had to go about 70 or 80 yards, [and] as a defense, you obviously want that situation,” senior linebacker Mike Nixon,said. “It’s on us to win the game. I really feel like, as a defense, we let this team down.”

Cal junior quarterback Kevin Riley methodically racked up 85 of his 351 passing yards on the game-winning drive that saw the Bears overcome a first-and-25 hole following an offensive facemask penalty and drive the ball down inside the Sun Devil 10-yard line for the chip-shot field goal.

The Sun Devils grabbed their first lead of the game early in the fourth quarter when freshman running back Cameron Marshall scored from six yards to put ASU up 21-20 with 10:21 to go.

Tavecchio then missed a 39-yard attempt with 5:46 to play, which gave ASU a chance to virtually run out the clock.

But the Sun Devils could not pick up a much-needed first down on the possession, as Marshall was stopped just inches short of the sticks on a third-and-three play,.

“It’s really difficult,” said ASU senior quarterback Danny Sullivan, who completed 16 of his 29 passes for 244 yards. “We get that first down, [and] the game’s over, so it’s pretty tough to take.”

ASU got the ball one more time, but holding and intentional grounding penalties as time expired officially squashed any last-gasp comeback attempt.

But the come-from-behind performance by the Sun Devils did not even look possible in the early stages of the game.

Cal took a 14-0 lead in the first quarter on two touchdown passes from Riley. Junior running back Jahvid Best took a dump-off from Riley in the middle of the field, juked senior Jarrell Holman out of his shoes and took it into the end zone from 11 yards out with 10:18 left, and sophomore wide receiver Marvin Jones notched a 12-yard score at the 4:11 mark.

But ASU clawed its way back in the second frame on a pair of drives that lasted just one play.

After a fumble by Riley was recovered by ASU freshman linebacker Vontaze Burfict at the Cal three-yard line, ASU sophomore quarterback Samson Szakacsy was inserted into the game and found senior tight end Jovon Williams in the end zone to cut the Golden Bears’ lead to 14-7 with 10:21 to go before halftime.

It was Szakacsy’s first pass attempt, completion and touchdown of his career, as well as Williams’ first career touchdown reception.

Then following a missed 34-yard field-goal attempt by Tavecchio, ASU struck again on the first play of its ensuing drive when Sullivan found senior wide receiver Kyle Williams in the middle of the field. Williams then won the footrace with the Cal defense for an 80-yard touchdown and the longest pass play since Andrew Walter hit Derek Hagan for a 79 yards against UCLA in 2004.

“Their safeties parted like the Red Sea,” Sullivan said. “[Williams] was wide open, and you kind of just make sure you don’t miss him.”

The Golden Bears took a 20-14 lead on a pair of field goals by Tavecchio in the second and third quarters before Marshall’s touchdown scamper gave the Sun Devils the advantage.

The ASU defense held a Cal team that led the conference in rushing coming into Saturday’s contest to just 57 yards on the ground, but it was unable to stop Riley and the Golden Bear passing game on the game’s decisive drive.

“No matter how good you play, if you have a chance to win and it’s on you to win and you don’t, you’ve got to look yourself in the mirror first and foremost,” Nixon said. “That’s what we’ll do as a defense.”

The penalty troubles continued for the Sun Devils on Saturday, as they were flagged 11 times for 123 yards.

Senior running back Dimitri Nance reinjured his shoulder on the Sun Devils’ first drive of the game, and sophomore wide receiver T.J. Simpson left the game with a high ankle sprain.

Junior wide receiver Kerry Taylor did not play for the second straight game because of injury.

Reach the reporter at gina.mizell@asu.edu.