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Cal rallies to beat Air Force in Armed Forces Bowl

Dec 31, 2007 - 11:21 PM FORT WORTH, Texas (Ticker) -- Air Force got off to a fast start but Kevin Riley and Justin Forsett helped California finish with a victory.

Riley threw three touchdown passes and Forsett ran for two scores as the Golden Bears overcame a big early deficit to post a 42-36 win over the Falcons in the Armed Forces Bowl on Monday.

Air Force (9-4) jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the second quarter but was unable to stop Cal once its offense got rolling.

"I feel very fortunate to come away with a win. Our guys played very hard and I'm very proud of them to go down 21-0 and then be able to come back like they did," Cal coach Jeff Tedford said. "In the locker room at halftime, they were excited to go back out on the field for the second half and keep it going. No one panicked and everyone stayed focused."

A freshman, Riley replaced Nate Longshore in the second quarter and the Bears offense took off. He completed 16-of-19 passes for 269 yards and three TDs. He also ran for a TD in the fourth quarter to give Cal a 42-30 lead.

"We had planned all along to play both of them," Tedford said. "Initially, we were only going to bring Riley in at the end of the first and third quarters, but when we put him in at the beginning of the second quarter, he got a hot hand and had a good feeling for what we wanted to do.

"We were going to give him significant reps to get him some game experience, but we were very impressed with the way he played. It says a lot about his work-ethic."

Forsett, who finished second in the Pac-10 in rushing with 1,406 yards and 13 touchdowns, was just as effective on Monday. He ran for 140 yards on 23 carries and gave Cal the lead for good, 28-27, with a 1-yard TD run in the third quarter.

"You can't concentrate on just trying to stop our running game," Forsett said. "We're pretty potent all over on offense. We knew we just had to execute, make some plays and score some points to have a chance to get back into the game and win it."

Forsett's go-ahead TD came after Air Force lost starting quarterback Shaun Carney with a right knee injury. Carney was tackled at the Cal 1 on third down when his leg buckled after being hit by a trio of Cal players.

"It looks like it's both his right ACL and MCL," Air Force coach Troy Calhoun said of Carney's injury. "He would have loved to have stayed out there, and I'm sure he would have, but there was no way he was going to."

The game marked a matchup of teams that ended the regular season going in opposite directions and it appeared that things were set to continue.

California dropped six of its last seven games to turn a 5-0 start into a 6-6 finish. The only win during that stretch was a 20-17 victory against Washington State.

Unlike Cal, Air Force came into the game riding high, having won three straight and six of its last seven games. The Falcons scored 96 points in their last two contests, beating Notre Dame and San Diego State.

Air Force was able to use its option attack to expose a number of holes in the Cal defense in the first half. Carney ran for a 1-yard TD in the first quarter to open the scoring and hit Travis Dekker for a 7-yard score in the second to make it 14-0.

Jim Ollis ran for an 8-yard TD to make it 21-0 before Riley and Forsett rallied the Golden Bears.

"You have to give California a lot of credit - they were quick and executed extremely well," Calhoun said. "We fired every piece of ammunition we had and didn't leave anything in the arsenal."