Arizona defeats Cal

Arizona used a fantastic defense and air attack to defeat Cal 42-27 Saturday night.

"Obviously I'm very excited about the effort of both the coaches and players," Arizona head coach Mike Stoops said. "I can't put into words to describe what we came through to get here. There was much written and much said and a lot of times we were written off, but we kept coming back."

Cal opened scoring and it looked as if the Golden Bears might cruise. However, a Nicolas Grigsby fumble may have actually given Arizona the spark it needed because Keola Antolin would not have played without it.

Antolin finished with three touchdowns and over 150 yards, bringing up the question of whether or not he is the new starter.

"It was good to see Keola Antolin step up and play about as good as any true freshman I have ever seen," Stoops said.

As well as Antolin played, the UA was still losing at halftime and Stoops was trying his hardest to motivate his squad.

"This game was a lot like the one we played two years ago," he said. "I told the kids at halftime that we were only down 10 this time and we were down 14 two years ago against a really good team we played here tonight."

With the win, Arizona will now face USC next week for first place in the conference.

"It puts us in first place and that's where we want to be," Stoops said. "We are playing for first place next week and that's a position we haven't been in a long time."