PULLMAN — Walk-on Quentin Breshears of Washington State missed a would-be winning field goal from 19 yards with 15 seconds left Saturday night, enabling California to escape with an unbelievable 60-59 Pac-12 football victory over WSU.

The game saw an FBS-record 734 yards passing by WSU’s Connor Halliday, and 527 by Cal’s Jared Goff.

After a Cal score with 3:18 remaining put the Bears ahead 60-59, the Cougars seemingly had a great chance to rescue the victory. The only question seemed to be whether they’d score a touchdown to make it difficult on Cal, or have to settle for a field goal.

They moved downfield and a Halliday pass to Vince Mayle got the ball to the 4-yard line of Cal. A run by Gerard Wicks nosed the ball almost to the goal line, but Wicks came up just short. He was then stopped on second down, actually losing about a yard and a half, and WSU called its final timeout to set up Breshears’ attempt.

The snap appeared low to holder Isiah Myers, but he got the ball set. Breshears, however, hit the ball about a foot to the right of the right upright, and the Bears started a wild celebration.

Cal moved to 4-1 with the victory, while WSU’s perplexing season continued at 2-4.

The two teams combined for 1,401 yards of total offense, with the Cougars netting 812 to the Bears’ 589. Halliday completed 49 of 70 passes and Goff was 37 of 53. And neither quarterback threw an interception in a game that didn’t have a turnover. Mayle ended up with 11 receptions for 263 yards for WSU.

The Bears took the lead with 8:34 left in the fourth quarter, 54-52, on a 21-yard pass from Goff to Bryce Treggs on which the Cougars tried a seven-man, sellout rush, but Cal foiled it. However, an extra point try by James Langford was blocked.

It was the sixth possession of the second half for Cal, and the Bears scored touchdowns on all six.

Back came the Cougars as the time passed 11 p.m. on the occasion of homecoming in front of 30,020 spectators. But Halliday’s apparent touchdown pass to Myers from the 7-yard line was overturned on review with 5:09 left.

After a couple of penalties on Cal in the end zone as WSU tried to put in the go-ahead score, Wicks finally bulled over from the 1-yard line with 4:19 left to make it 59-54, WSU.

But Cal came right back in four plays, scoring on a 51-yard pass from Goff to Trevor Davis, who was jostled out of bounds on the route by Daquawn Brown, but was thus allowed to come back in, catch Goff’s fifth TD pass and put Cal ahead 60-59. But Goff’s two-point conversion pass to Treggs was overthrown, leaving the margin at one point.

Cal, down 52-41 entering the fourth quarter, closed to 52-48 on a short TD pass from Goff to Treggs.

The third quarter was a ridiculous orgy of big plays, a quarter in which the teams fought to a 28-28 draw over 15 minutes, a quarter in which Halliday went over the 600-yard mark for passing yards and Davis returned consecutive kickoffs 100 and 98 yards for touchdowns.

Cal had the second-half kickoff and in 3½ minutes, had rolled up 167 yards on six plays and two touchdowns for its first lead of the night, 27-24.

But the Cougars had plenty of firepower themselves, and grabbed a little momentum after one touchdown when they successfully executed an onside kick, with Erik Powell dribbling the kick barely 10 yards before he scooped it up.

The first half ended with the Cougars up 24-13, but it could have been more.

With WSU ahead 24-10, the Cougars moved from their 10 to the Cal 34 with a second-and-eight. But Halliday threw three consecutive incomplete passes and Cal took over there with 1:20 left.

From there, the Cougars begrudged Cal a lot of short gains, and eventually, James Langford hit a 26-yard field goal for the Bears as time ran out for intermission.

The scoring began explosively after each team failed to move following their initial first down.

On its second possession, after a false-start penalty moved it back to the 10-yard line, WSU took a 7-0 lead when Halliday found Mayle free on a deep post route. Mayle had run by cornerback Darius White, and safety Griffin Piatt took himself out of the play.

Breshears’ 42-yard field goal gave the Cougs a 10-0 lead, but it was obvious WSU was going to have its hands full with the Cal passing game.

WSU blitzed with impunity, and rarely did it get home. Goff got rid of the ball quickly.

The Cougs put up two more TDs in the second quarter to give themselves breathing room — if scant.

Still, with an 11-point halftime lead and Cal to receive the second-half kickoff, the Cougars were far from in control. The Bears came in off a two-week bender of having scored 101 points against Arizona and Colorado.

Bud Withers: 206-464-8281 or bwithers@seattletimes.com

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