Golden Bears won’t go bowling

BERKELEY, Calif. – Christian Stewart threw for 433 yards and five touchdowns, and Brigham Young kept California from becoming bowl eligible with a 42-35 win over the Golden Bears on Saturday.

Stewart tossed a 38-yard TD pass to a wide-open Jordan Leslie with 2:39 remaining for the go-ahead score, setting off chants of “B-Y-U! B-Y-U!” at half-filled Memorial Stadium. The Cougars (8-4) stopped record-setting Cal quarterback Jared Goff one more time for their fourth straight victory.

Goff completed 38 of 60 passes for 393 yards and four touchdowns, adding to his own school record for yards passing in a season and breaking Pat Barnes’ mark of 31 TD passes in 1996. But he had one interception and threw incomplete on his final four passes to the end zone as the Bears (5-7) ended the season with three consecutive losses.

“It’s hard to take in right now. And I think it’s hard for the whole team,” Goff said after emerging from a silent locker room.

Cal, which had made strides after going 1-11 last year in coach Sonny Dykes’ first season in Berkeley, will remember 2014 more for how it ended. The Bears lost 38-30 at Southern California and 38-17 at home to rival Stanford last week before wasting their final shot at a bowl in even more dramatic fashion.

Dykes chose to punt on fourth-and-1 from Cal’s 34 with less than 5 minutes to play, and the Cougars capitalized with the winning 66-yard TD drive.

Then Goff guided Cal down field before a 5-yard false start penalty on first down pushed the Bears back to BYU’s 14. Goff threw incomplete to Kenny Lawler on the final four plays, the last one with 10 seconds left.