Take Five: Las Vegas Bowl

Saturday, Dec. 24, 2005 | 8:20 a.m.

Longtime observers of the local sports scene were witness to a phenomenon of astronomical proportions Thursday night.

The moon must have been in its seventh house. With Jupiter aligned with Mars. And peace guiding the planets.

How else do you explain a sellout at the Las Vegas Bowl?

Was this the dawning of the new age of our postseason classic? Hard to say. But Cal's 35-28 victory over Brigham Young in front of a capacity crowd at Sam Boyd Stadium might well be the Las Vegas Bowl by which all future ones are measured.

It was a night, as they sang on Broadway, when all the elements came together.

1. THE GAME

What good is a sellout crowd if you can't give it something to cheer about? Cal and BYU certainly did their parts, combining for 915 yards, although the Golden Bears had the better of it during the first three quarters in building a 35-14 lead.

But Mountain West teams traditionally don't die easily in the Las Vegas Bowl and BYU was no exception.

By the end, the Cougars looked like Tony Montana in the climactic scene of "Scarface." They rallied for two fourth-quarter touchdowns and were driving toward another one when Cal's Phillip Mbakogu yanked John Beck's passing arm, forcing an interception that preserved Cal's 35-28 victory.

2. THE SCALPER

It's not a real football game unless it brings out ticket scalpers, and they were lined up two and three deep along Russell Road, the access road to Sam Boyd Stadium. But the supply seemed to be dwarfing the demand.

"Stiff. Zero. Nobody's buying and it's only going to get worse," said Marcus Graham of Silver State tickets as he fanned a handful of tickets as if they were a poker hand. "There's too many tickets."

Graham said for football in Las Vegas that's almost always the case.

"Monster trucks and Supercross," he said about his, um, meal tickets.

3. THE FAN

Among the thousands of face-painters and foam-finger wavers I spotted a guy wearing a Cal No. 8 football jersey loading up on souvenirs at an official Las Vegas Bowl trailer just outside the main gate.

"Down from Berkeley?" I said.

"No, Edinburgh," he said with a Sean Connery brogue.

Stewart Watson, here on holiday, was thrilled to be attending his first American football game. As for real football, I told him I was sorry that Scotland and Ireland didn't qualify for the World Cup, but maybe England was poised for a strong run.

"God, I hope not," he said.

4. THE MVP

Marshawn Lynch, Cal's wooly bully of a running back who bludgeoned BYU for 194 yards on 24 carries and three tackle-shredding touchdown runs, said the second one, a 23-yard reverse-his-field job in the second quarter, nearly didn't happen because of a faulty shoelace.

"I almost, almost slipped," Lynch said of his untied shoe.

The BYU defense, on the other hand, almost, almost tackled him.

"Cal's running backs are exceptional, not average," BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall said about Lynch's really big shoe.

5. THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Whereas she should have had visions of sugarplum fairies clutching end zone tickets dancing in her head, Tina Kunzer-Murphy said she had a restless Las Vegas Bowl Eve.

"I kept worrying that we had all these tickets out, but what if nobody shows up?" said the Las Vegas Bowl executive director.

Not to worry. Virtually every seat was filled as the game attracted a crowd of 40,053, the third-largest in Sam Boyd Stadium history.

While the matchup featuring two teams with huge followings certainly didn't hurt, Kunzer-Murphy and her staff are to be commended for adding the finishing touches, such as the pregame fireworks and Air Force flyover, that made it a special night.

"It was a great game and people stayed to the end," she said.

No further review is necessary.

Ron Kantowski can be reached at 259-4088 or at ron@lasvegassun.com.