BERKELEY, Calif. -- Three times Washington State coach Mike Leach referred to his team's performance Friday night as "pathetic."

The eighth-ranked Cougars committed seven turnovers -- including five interceptions thrown and a lost fumble by Luke Falk -- as California stunned Washington State 37-3 on Friday night at Cal's Memorial Stadium.

"Our guys just sauntered around the field like they had accomplished something, which we didn't," Leach said. "Way too much listening to the noise. We were pathetic."

While the Cougars (6-1, 3-1) became the second top-10 team to lose on Friday night, joining No. 2 Clemson as a victim, Cal (4-3, 1-3) was celebrating a win that was punctuated by quarterback Ross Bowers' acrobatic touchdown run.

Bowers scored on a 7-yard scramble that ended with Bowers doing a complete forward flip into the end zone after being hit low at the 2-yard line. It gave Cal a 27-3 lead in the third quarter.

"That's Ross right there," Cal coach Justin Wilcox said. "You think, 'What are you doing?' Then you just want to hug him, because that's guts."

The kicker is that Bowers' mother, Joanne, was Washington's head gymnastics coach for 10 years. She had some postgame words for her son.

"She said, 'Why didn't you do a double?'"

Cal (4-3, 1-3) did not commit a turnover and ended a three-game losing streak in a game played under hazy skies created by the nearby wildfires in northern California.

Bowers bounced back from a poor performance against Washington, when he passed for just 80 yards in a 38-7 loss, to throw for 259 yards and a touchdown against the Cougars. He was the better quarterback this night.

Falk, who entered the game with an NCAA-best 19 touchdown passes and two interceptions, was 28 of 43 for 286 yards, no touchdowns and the five picks.

He was sacked nine times, and he also lost a fumble that that was returned 26 yards by Cal's Gerran Brown for the Bears' final points.

Washington State had scored at least 30 points in each of its first six games. This was the Cougars' lowest scoring output since they were shut out by Arizona State in 2010.

When a reporter suggested the Cougars' defense played a decent game, Leach disagreed.

"They were terrible," Leach said. "What game did you watch? They were pathetic. We're a bunch of pathetic frontrunners."

Cal running back Vic Enwere rushed 22 times for 102 yards, with 94 of them coming in the second half.

"It was a total team win, and those are the best kind," Wilcox said.

Falk's first pass was intercepted by Camryn Bynum at the Washington State 20-yard line. Cal turned that turnover into a 3-0 lead when Matt Anderson booted a 26-yard field goal.

And the Bears continued to make the big plays on defense.

Bynum made his second interception in his own end zone, thwarting a Washington State drive that had reached the Cal 13 in the second quarter.

After Bowers' 2-yard touchdown pass to Kyle Wells on the final play of the first half gave the Bears a 17-3 lead, Cal linebacker Raymond Davison III intercepted a shovel pass after Washington State had reached the Bears' 14 yard-line early in the third quarter.

A 48-yard Anderson field goal in the third quarter and Bowers' highlight-reel touchdown run in the fourth put the game away.

"We were obviously super excited afterward," Bynum said, "because we got a win against one of the top teams in the nation. It lets us know we can play against anybody."

NOTES: The game started on time despite air-quality concerns stemming from the nearby northern California wildfires. ... RB Patrick Laird, Cal's leading rusher, did not play because of an unspecified injury. ... Cal LB Devante Downs, the Pac-12's leading tackler, left the game in the third quarter with an unspecified injury. ... Washington State was without two defensive starters because of injuries -- LB Isaac Dotson (unspecified) and CB Darrien Molton (arm). ... Cal hosts Arizona next Saturday, and Washington State plays at home against Colorado the same day. ... Last season, Cal offensive coordinator Beau Baldwin was the head coach at Eastern Washington, an FCS school that beat Washington State 45-42 in Pullman, Wash.. ... The game was interrupted late in the second quarter when a woman ran onto the field and sat down near the line of scrimmage. She was dragged off the field by security.