The California Conference has kicked off as it does, a little quietly as some games are played before the winter break. The conference is getting active earlier and earlier, and that just allows teams to fit in more games. This is especially important since two teams, University of San Diego and UCLA, have been added to the conference at the D1A level.
That makes the list of teams competing this:
Cal Poly, Long Beach State (CSULB), Sacramento State, Saint Mary’s, San Diego State, Santa Clara, UC Davis, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Clara, and University of San Diego.
UCLA opened up their season with a tight win over a Long Beach State team that is expected to be much improved. Saint Mary’s beat UCSC by a wide margin and then this past weekend played Long Bech. The Gaels got tries from the Ofa brothers, Sione and Siale, two tries from center Atelea Tengei, a try from Sosaia Pongi, and one from skipper Matthew Abbes.
The Gaels’ ability to get the ball to the wing is impressive, especially this early in the season. They expect to play well at a fast and wide open style, and they do.
UCLA shut out UCSC 69-0 behind three tries from Oscar Jordan-Shamis and two each from Beau White and Adam Devlin. Pierce McMahon scored 19 points off seven conversions and a try.
Perhaps the biggest result, however, was UC Santa Barbara tying University of San Diego 27-27 in the rain.
USD scored more tries than the Gauchos but Javier Lopez de Haro Juste’s boot, especially a penalty and a conversion in the middle of the second half to make it 27-22 UCSB, helped get his team there. Brandon Guiducci’s late try secured the draw for USD.
This was an important result for UCSB. Head Coach Neil Foote had a lot of turnover from last year’s solid showing. “Pleasing result for us as we are definitely entering a rebuild,” said Foote, who graduated 95% of his A side from last year. “We had no starters from last year’s squad playing in the same position.”
De Haro wasn’t just key with his boot, but a strong playmaker as he helped set up scoring for the likes of Ryan Layman, Elan Goetz, William Gezi, and Dominic Zboyan.
For USD, this was a good entry into D1A—neither a win nor a loss. A bonus point for four tries, but lessons to bring back, as well.
