Tough Night in Louisiana for Cal, 41-34

Tim Rattay found tight end Josh Bradley alone in the middle of the field for a 42-yard touchdown with 53 seconds left and Louisiana Tech beat California, 41-34, in a nonconference game Saturday night at Shreveport, La.

It was Rattay’s third touchdown pass of the night.

Louisiana Tech (4-1), held scoreless in the third quarter as California pressured Rattay, tied the game for the second time on Bobby Ray Tell’s third touchdown of the night, a three-yard run that made it 34-34 with 5:22 left.

Rattay, who leads the nation in total offense with 376.5 yards per game, completed 24 of 51 passes for 343 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 38 yards.

Troy Edwards had his seventh straight 100-yard receiving game, gaining 176 yards on nine receptions. Tell had 91 yards on 12 carries.

California quarterback Jason Vedder completed 21 of 37 passes for 314 yards and two touchdowns, with one interception.

Louisiana Tech, an independent, gained 544 total yards, California had 549.

Louisiana Tech scored first when Rattay passed to Cedric Williams for a 13-yard touchdown 3:19 into the game. California (2-2) offset the score on Deltha O’Neal’s 66-yard touchdown run 27 seconds later.

Rattay tossed a 36-yard touchdown to Tell to make it 14-7 with 8:56 left and Tell put the Bulldogs up 21-7 with a seven-yard run just 2:18 later.

A 66-yard pass from Vedder to Bobby Shaw and a five-yard scoring run by Marcus Fields left the Golden Bears down 21-20.

Shaw, who had 121 yards on six receptions, got his second touchdown on a 22-yard pass from Vedder but Marty Kent kicked field goals of 23 and 43 yards to pull Tech into a 27-27 halftime tie.

California drove 77 yards on 14 plays with Joshua White diving the final yard to make it 34-27 with 30 seconds left in the third quarter.

OREGON STATE 26, SAN JOSE STATE 12

Coach Mike Riley predicted it wouldn’t be an easy game, even with Oregon State favored by 17 points, and he was right--just about as right as the oddsmakers.

His Beavers, 2-2 overall and 0-2 in the Pac-10, escaped with a victory over winless San Jose State (0-4) at Corvallis, Ore., in a nonconference game of defensive scoring, fake punts, costly penalties and enough mistakes on both sides to balance out the blunders.

“I think we were really at the top of our game defensively at the outset,” Riley said, “and then really at the bottom of our game offensively. It was unbelievably bad.”

The Oregon State defense did all the scoring for the Beavers in the first half, as senior cornerback Basheer Elahee started them off with a 29-yard interception return against San Jose quarterback Chris Kasteler to make it 7-0.

The Beavers defense then sacked Kasteler to force a safety and junior linebacker Brian Rogers ran back a San Jose fumble 59 yards to take a 16-0 lead.

“I was so surprised, I really didn’t know to react,” Rogers said.

But the Oregon State defense finally tripped up by fumbling away a recovered blocked punt, setting up the first San Jose touchdown to make it 16-6 at halftime.

It looked like Jamil Braithwaite was about to scoop up the ball and score again for the Beaver defense when he fumbled and San Jose punter Jason Chapple got the ball back and took it 19 yards to the Oregon State 22.

Junior college transfer Brian Vye led the Spartans to their first touchdown of the game in five plays, with converted tight end Jeff Persson slanting the final four yards to score from the backfield.

ARIZONA 31, SAN DIEGO STATE 28

The Wildcats (2-3) fell behind 21-0 in the first quarter before rallying to defeat the visiting Aztecs (1-4) at Tucson.

Ortege Jenkins passed seven yards to Dennis Northcutt for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter and Mark McDonald kicked a 28-yard field goal with 2:12 left to play for Arizona.

Jenkins and Northcutt hooked on on a 56-yard pass-play touchdown in the third quarter.

Kevin McKechnie threw three touchdown passes in the first quarter, two to Az-zahir Hakim, as San Diego State started fast. The touchdown plays to Hakim covered 41 and 37 yards.

A 96-yard touchdown run by Trun Canidate in the second quarter brought the Wildcats within 21-14.