By Khalid Bennett
The Seattle Medium
With a late evening start under the lights, Washington had all Saturday to prepare for their conference showdown with California. The Huskies at 5-0 on the season, looked to improve in the national standings, as well as in the conference standings as the sit at the top of the Pac-12 north tied with Washington State. Washington State was able to get a victory earlier in the day over Oregon putting the pressure on Chris Petersen’s program to keep up with a 3-0 conference record.
Washington started the game with a flurry of defenders swarming California from all angles. With 2 three and outs, a forced fumble, and a sack, Washington held California to 46 total yards of offense in the first half. The struggles on offense opened up a couple of punt return opportunities for Dante Pettis. The all-time conference record holder for punt return touchdowns wasn’t able to wiggle free for a national record, but was able to place Washington in excellent field position opportunities.
After scoring a touchdown on their first drive off a Jake Browning pass to freshman tight end Hunter Bryant, the Husky offense went quiet. After a field in the second quarter made the score 10-0, the Huskies awakened after UW quarterback Jake Browning ran for a 21-yard touchdown on an option keeper making it 17-0 in favor of Washington. Myles Gaskin put the Huskies ahead 24-0 on an 8-yard touchdown run going into halftime, that put him 4th on the school’s list of all-time rushers passing Joe Steele.
Even though the Husky offense slowed things down in the second half, the defense continued to turn up the heat on California. Junior defensive tackles Vita Vea and Greg Gaines put relentless pressure on Cal quarterback Ross Bowers throughout the ball game. Washington allowed only 15 total yards in the third quarter. The way the Washington defense played, Cal literally could not move the football. In fact, the defense was able to put the only points up on the scoreboard for California when senior cornerback Darius Allensworth picked up a Dante Pettis fumble, and took it 37 yards for a touchdown. Taylor Rapp and JoJo McIntosh each forced a fumble and the Husky defense tallied up 8 sacks on the evening. Washington ended the evening giving up 93 total yards, a season high for the top defense in the Pac-12.
Browning finished with 215 yards passing with 2 touchdowns. Myles Gaskin had two rushing touchdowns and Hunter Bryant, the true freshman out of Issaquah, had 121 yards receiving on 9 catches with a touchdown.
Washington will travel to Tempe on Saturday to take on the Sun Devils of Arizona State in another late evening game on ESPN.
Photo Highlights From UW vs Cal at Husky Stadium (October 7, 2017)
