Buckeyes invade the west coast

I grew up in a quiet little suburb outside of Columbus, Oh. It was a happy upbringing. One inevitable side-effect of spending my formative years in what is a football-crazed part of the country is that I inevitably became a staunch supporter of the Ohio State Buckeyes. Thus even after I relocated my life to Provo, Ut for school, my loyalties remain with my first and only love. 

For a while, my friends and I had tossed around the the idea of making this weekend into a road trip. We knew that Ohio State would be taking on UC Berkeley in California and we wanted to be there to cheer them on.  One of my roommates also grew up in Columbus and may be a more rabid fan that I. When I pitched him the idea, he was immediately on board. With a little persuasion we convinced another roommate, who grew up in the Bay Area, to abandon his organic chemistry books for the weekend as well. With two friends and my younger brother in tow, the team was assembled and we left late Friday night. 

We got to California and were greeted by sunshine and warm weather. After getting to campus as early we could muster after a long night of driving, we were all surprised by the volume of gray and red that poured into the stadium. Were we in Columbus or Berkeley, California? 

After the game started the Buckeyes made quick work of the Golden Bears. The second play from scrimmage was a 90-yard touchdown pass that gave OSU an advantage they never relinquished. The highlight of the whole weekend came around the end of the 3rd quarter when Cal fans realized a loss was inevitable and began a slow and shameful exit from the stadium. To add insult to injury, the Buckeye faithful let a stadium-wide chant of "OH-IO" reign down on the embattled home crowd. The game, and the score by which they won, was even more impressive because their star quarterback, Braxton Miller, was out with a knee injury. Fortunately for buckeye nation, their backup filled the void wonderfully. 

We are on our way back now, but I think I speak for everyone in the crew when I say that the weekend was a success.