SAN DIEGO STATE JOLTS CAL ON FINAL PLAY 9/11/94 By DON BOSLEY McClatchy News Service SAN DIEGO -- If this was somebody's idea of a wake-up call, it came way too early. You could tell by the way the Cal Bears rolled over and hit the snooze button. Clearly immersed in a donnybrook with San Diego State on Saturday night, the Bears came out for the second half and went on a 30-minute sleepwalk. When the last penalty flag had been thrown, the last pass dropped and the last defender beaten, Cal awoke to the sobering sight of Peter Holt's 32-yard field goal sailing through the uprights with no time left. Holt's kick welcomed the Bears to the 1994 season with a 22-20 shot to the jaw. San Diego State drove 62 efficient yards to the winning score, thus securing the Aztecs' first win over a Pacific-10 Conference team in their last 18 tries. ''It was a coach's nightmare,'' Cal coach Keith Gilbertson said. ''Mistake, mistake, mistake. Penalty, penalty, penalty. Dropped ball, dropped ball, dropped ball.'' A crowd of 40,922 at Jack Murphy Stadium couldn't have been more thrilled. Ditto for San Diego State coach Ted Tollner, the former USC mentor who is making his college return after a handful of NFL stops. ''We're elated,'' Tollner said afterward. ''These are the kind of wins that are the joys in coaching.'' After being outgained 225-41 in the first half, the Aztecs rolled up 322 second-half yards. Quarterback Tim Gutierrez ran Tollner's no-huddle offense to perfection, throwing for 200 yards in the third quarter alone. Cal seemed mystified by the whole scene. The Bears' offense spent much of the evening inside the Aztecs' 20, but often found ways to back out of it. Ten Cal penalties, covering 89 yards, seemed to be sprinkled in all the wrong spots. Three sacks and numerous dropped passes pulled the plugs on promising drives. Finally, Cal kicker Ryan Longwell missed a 33-yard field goal with 3:22 remaining to provide the final springboard for San Diego State. Starting at his own 20, Gutierrez mixed short passes with wide runs by halfback Wayne Pittman. A personal foul on Cal safety Dante DePaola made the field 15 yards shorter for San Diego. With 1:29 to go, Gutierrez threw into double coverage over the middle. DePaola was there to bat the ball into the air, where tight end Mark Ziegler gathered under it for a 27-yard gain to the Cal 18. ''Once we hit that pass, I knew we'd won it,'' said Gutierrez, who then made two obligatory handoffs to center the game-winner for Holt. Cal's chances to put the game out of reach were many and varied. The Bears' first three drives of the game all pushed inside the Aztecs' 25, but two Longwell field goals were the net result. Even after Gutierrez put San Diego State ahead 19-14 with a 65-yard strike to single-covered Will Blackwell in the third quarter, the Bears appeared they would escape. Quarterback Dave Barr found tight end Marc Vera with a 10-yard scoring pass with 5:04 remaining, putting the Bears up 20-19. But the Bears were still stumbling. Barr's pass on the critical two-point conversion attempt was high and off the mark. And when an interception by safety Ricky Spears put Cal in perfect position to seal the outcome, the Bears squandered that opportunity as well. Spears returned his interception inside the 10, but an illegal block on the return moved Cal back to the San Diego State 22. On first down, Reynard Rutherford fumbled, but the ball was recovered by guard Randy Nonhof. On second down, Barr misfired. On third down, fullback Marshall Foran, replacing the injured Johnny Tavake, dropped an easy pass that would have netted the first down. On fourth down, Longwell missed his 33-yarder, which would have given Cal a four-point lead. ''We just didn't execute, bottom line,'' Barr repeated, over and over, in postgame interviews. ''We've got a lot of young guys, and they better have learned from this.'' Barr, the nation's second-rated passer in 1993, completed 21 of 34 passes for 242 yards, with two touchdowns and one interception. He found a new favorite receiver in junior Iheanyi Uwaezuoke, who had seven catches for 88 yards, but even Uwaezuoke had a drop or two down the stretch. Cal employed five and six defensive backs through most of the game but still couldn't cope with the weird wizardry of Gutierrez, who kept finding receivers and openings where there seemingly were none. Gutierrez, after throwing for just 61 yards in the first half, finished with 314 yards on 25-for-43 passing.