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BERKELEY, California (Ticker) -- Washington continued its success over California, but again it did not come easily. Rich Alexis rushed for 94 yards, including a pair of one-yard touchdowns in the fourth quarter, as 12th-ranked Washington bounced back from an early 14-point deficit to edge California, 31-28, in a Pac-10 Conference matchup. Washington (3-0, 1-0 Pac-10) defeated California for the 19th straight time but had to overcome a four-touchdown performance by quarterback Kyle Boller. "I'm very elated with the victory, given the nature of the comeback," Washington coach Rick Neuheisel said. "We certainly were not on all cylinders. We were firing blanks in the first half." The Huskies rallied from a fourth-quarter deficit against the Bears for the third straight season. But the biggest deficit was Saturday after Boller threw a two-yard TD toss to Sean Currin and a 19-yarder to Joe Igber for an early 14-0 cushion. "It's an amazing deal," Neuheisel said of the comebacks. "I can only imagine what they're thinking on the other side." Washington answered on a 42-yard touchdown pass from Cody Pickett to Paul Arnold before the Bears (0-4, 0-2) regained a 14-point cushion on a 14-yard pass from Boller to Jordan Hunter. Pickett, who completed 18-of-33 passes for 291 yards, began a second-half comeback with a 62-yard TD strike to Arnold that made it 21-17. The two touchdowns by Alexis, who carried 26 times, put the Huskies in front, 31-21. The first of the scores was set up by a 44-yard pass from Pickett to Reggie Williams and the second came after a 16-yard pass to Alexis to the California 1. "The offensive line really played great in the second half and opened up some big holes," Alexis said. "It's never easy against Cal. We knew Cal was going to come out tough." Boller cut the deficit to three points with a 20-yard pass to Chase Lyman with 3:23 left. The Bears had one more possession but turned over the ball on downs in their own territory. "I think at this time and at this point in our season, it's very important to us to make gains in certain areas and one of the ones we did make a definite gain in today was that we played with a lot of heart," California coach Tom Holmoe said. California is off to its first 0-4 start since 1980. Boller was 21-of-36 for 265 yards and went over the 4,000-yard passing mark in his career. John Anderson kicked a 40-yard field goal for Washington in the second quarter.
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