By JOSH DUBOW AP Sports Writer
BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — Brent Austin forced a fumble at the goal line and recovered it in the end zone to preserve the lead in the fourth quarter, giving California a 21-18 victory over Bill Belichick and North Carolina on Friday night.
“Just came up a little bit short today, a couple inches I guess on the touchdown on the fumble,” Belichick said.
Belichick looked poised for his first win in four games against a power conference opponent since taking over the Tar Heels (2-4, 0-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) when North Carolina was driving for the go-ahead score.
Gio Lopez hit Nathan Leacock on a short pass and Leacock was running toward the end zone when Austin knocked the ball out just before he crossed the goal line. Austin then dove on the loose ball in the end zone to give the Golden Bears (5-2, 2-1) the ball back with 3:48 to play.
“That’s as good of an individual play as we’ve had this year,” Cal coach Justin Wilcox said.
Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele then completed two key passes for first downs on the ensuing drive and Cal burned all but fives seconds off to get the win. Sagapolutele also threw a TD pass and ran for another score for the Bears.
Belichick arrived at North Carolina with plenty of fanfare after winning six Super Bowls as a head coach in the NFL. But the results have been underwhelming as the Tar Heels have lost all four games against power conference opponents,
After getting outscored by 87 points in the first three losses, the Tar Heels were far more competitive against Cal even if the end result was the same.
“We’ve been improving every week,” Belichick said. “I’m not going to back off. I think that’s true. But you can’t turn the ball over and win. It’s just too hard. We’ve got to eliminate some of those kind of mistakes.”
The game started like the season has gone for North Carolina with Shanard Clower losing a fumble on the first play from scrimmage and Cal turning it into a touchdown when Sagapolutele scored four plays later.
But the Tar Heels tied it on Benjamin Hall’s 18-yard run and trailed only 14-10 at the half for their closest first half in four games against power teams this season.
Cal took the second-half kickoff and drive down for a touchdown to take a 21-10 lead on Kendrick Raphael’s 2-yard run but couldn’t pull away as North Carolina cut it to 21-18 on Davion Gause’s TD run early in the fourth quarter.
The takeaway
North Carolina: The Tar Heels came into the game ranked in the bottom three among power conference teams in scoring and yards per play and didn’t do much to change that. They had no first downs on their first three drives and averaged 4.7 yards per play for the game.
California: The Bears bounced back from a lopsided home loss against Duke but weren’t sharp at all on offense. Sagapolutele completed just 21 of 39 passes and the team struggled to move the ball consistently.
Up next
North Carolina: Hosts No. 18 Virginia on Oct. 25.
California: At Virginia Tech on Friday night.