No. 10 UC Davis beats Cal Poly to retain the Golden Horseshoe

The trophy will remain rooted in Yolo County.

No. 10 UC Davis defeated Cal Poly 24-13 Saturday night in San Luis Obispo in a Big Sky Conference game, otherwise known as the Battle of the Golden Horseshoe between rivals who first met in 1938.

Miles Hastings completed 28 of 34 passes for 210 yards and two touchdowns, and Ulonzo Gilliam Jr. rushed for 109 yards on 24 carries for the 22nd 100-yard effort in his UCD career as the Aggies moved to 7-1 overall and 4-1 in the Big Sky.

Cal Poly lost its sixth straight and is 1-6 and 0-4 in the Big Sky.

Gilliam Jr. is the third leading rusher in program history with 3.165 yards.

“He’s everything you’d want in a back,” UCD coach Dan Hawkins said of Gilliam last week after a 32-3 win over Northern Colorado.

Saturday marked the 47th meeting between the rivals who have faced off each season since 1978, except the 2020 fall season that was canceled due to the pandemic. UCD leads the series 25-20-2. Hawkins is 5-0 against Cal Poly in his UCD head-coaching tenure (he went 1-1 against the Mustangs when he played fullback for UCD in 1981 and ‘82).

Hastings is the third quarterback UCD has used extensively this season along with Hunter Rodrigues and Trent Tompkins, and all have delivered big in a remarkable show of position depth. Hawkins said earlier in the week that he doesn’t like to use the term “starter” and prefers “contributor” and the Aggies have a host of them.

Hastings completed 20 of 21 passes in the first half for 153 yards and a touchdown to CJ Huton for a 10-7 lead. Gilliam’s 30-yard yard touchdown run gave UCD a 17-10 lead a minute into the third quarter, but Cal Poly cut it to 17-13 on two Matthew Hoffman field goals.

UCD capped the scoring with 4:04 left in the third on Hastings’ 1-yard touchdown to Carson Crawford.

UCD has a bye next week and visits Northern Arizona on Nov. 6.