Miles Hastings, UC Davis blast Cal Poly in 50th rivalry meeting to extend win streak to six

UC Davis started fast on Saturday night at home behind its playmakers and its stout defense, and the FCS No. 6-ranked Aggies breezed to their sixth consecutive victory by trouncing Cal Poly 56-10 in Big Sky Conference action in the 50th meeting between the rivals.

The first meeting between the football programs was in 1939. The schools have played each other every season since 1978.

UCD (6-1 overall, 2-0 in conference) led 42-10 at the half on Homecoming Night as Miles Hastings completed 16 of his first 17 passes for 269 yards and three touchdowns for a 269.3 quarterback rating. He finished with perhaps his finest game, the third-year starting senior completing 27 of 30 passes for 458 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions for a 262.2 rating.

Hastings has passed for 2,186 yards through seven games, ranking him among the leaders in the FCS.

This effort came a week after Hastings fired the game-winning, 11-yard touchdown pass to Trent Tompkins on the final play to beat winless Portland State, 27-26, thus avoiding the biggest upset in the FCS this season .

The Aggies looked the part of Big Sky contender against a talented but overmatched Cal Poly team, coached the last two seasons by former Davis High School star lineman Paul Wulff.

All-American running back Lan Larison rushed for 76 yards and two touchdowns, with 71 yards and those scores coming in the first half as UCD beat the Mustangs of San Luis Obispo for the eighth consecutive time. UCD moved to 28-20-2 all-time in the series. Since the schools introduced the Golden Horseshoe Trophy in 2004, UCD has gone 14-7 against Cal Poly.

Hastings had touchdown passes to Tompkins, Larison, Chaz Davis and Samuel Gbatu. UCD led 28-3 after the first quarter and piled up 671 yards of offense, the most for the program since the Aggies had a school-record 768 against Cal Poly in a 2021 spring game. That year, COVID-19 pushed seasons into the spring, when games were contested with no fans. UCD won that game 73-24 in the program’s 1,000th game since the school started football in 1915.

Former Rocklin High School star Richie Watts passed for 134 yards and rushed for 16, including a score, for Cal Poly, which fell to 2-4 overall and 1-2 in the Big Sky.

UCD plays at Eastern Washington on Oct. 19.