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Arizona Takes Down UCLA

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Arizona Takes Down UCLA

A big day for Steven Branham as the Wildcats beat the Bruins.

The University of Arizona laid down something of a market Saturday with a convincing 47-8 defeat of UCLA in PAC Rugby Conference action.

For Arizona, the last couple of years have been a bit up and down as the Wildcats have developed a core of young players. Head Coach Sean Duffy said this game was an indication that the youngsters are starting to take over.

"We've been building off the last two weeks," said Duffy. "We did some good things against Cal, and we're evolving as any team is, and we felt we could do some good things. We always seem to be missing key guys at key times but we're getting healthier and establishing some continuity."

Prop Steven Branham was a big presence around the field, and flyhalf Anton Grigoriou controlled the game nicely. 

The guys playing key roles are guys I recruited - a couple I inherited but they've been in the program for a while. We're starting to see the benefits of going young. There were some hair-pulling moments, but they're starting to space out more. The scary thing is, we started only one senior."

Captain Kyle Rogers, moved to fullback while Grigoriou takes over flyhalf, was able to support his younger teammates and also provide a good safety net for the players. No. 8 Tyler Hansen had a big game. 

"A lot of guys stepped up," said Duffy. "UCLA definitely responded, in bursts, but we were able to turn it around. We've still got a lot of games to play, but with the PAC Conference being a DIA Conference, there's more on the line."

With Arizona State beating USC, the PAC Conference Standings look like this:

PAC W L T Pf Pa Pd BT BL Pts
Cal 2 0 0 131 24 107 2 0 10
Arizona 2 1 0 103 76 27 2 0 10
Arizona State 1 1 0 62 64 -2 1 0 5
UCLA 1 1 0 46 62 -16 1 0 5
USC 0 2 0 55 91 -36 2 0 2
Utah 0 1 0 12 92 -80 0 0 0