Quick D1A College Roundup
Quick D1A College Roundup
Central Washington logged their second-straight victory over a highly-ranked Canadian college, beating this past fall's Canadian national champs University of British Columbia Saturday in Ellensburg.
UBC scored first with a penalty from center Takoda McMullin. The Thunderbirds kept up the pressure but could not garner further points. At 23 minutes UBC got down to the CWU tryline and stayed there for several minutes. But finally a knock-on in the ruck gave Central a chance to get out of trouble. The ensuing sequence was a little chaotic, with the ball bouncing around in strange directions (the best was a kick from CWU that bounced off a UBC player's head and caromed off a CWU player's face).
The game stayed in the middle of the field until Central broke down the right sideline with some nice ball movement. They kept that up, moving the ball from the ruck quickly and finally getting loose forward Andrew Miller in a position to surge over. That made it 5-3, and while McMullin nudged UBC ahead with another penalty, CWU started the second half with back rower Arona Tauliili scoring to put the Wildcats ahead 10-6.
Flyhalf Jac Tregoning added a penalty goal but the game remained close until the final 15 minutes. Once again CWU tested the right side and a power-running captain Calvin Liulamaga accelerated onto a good pass from scrumhalf Kye Jones to seal it. With Tregoning's conversion CWU led 20-6. UBC did score a try just before full time, but they didn't have enough time for more.
"Massive effort from us today, backing up on a short turnaround against a very good team," said CWU Head Coach Todd Thornley. "UBC made us work for 80 minutes as expected, but I am proud of the effort from our guys."
Full game here:
Saint Mary's defeated Arizona 48-15 behind two tries from capped Eagle Dom Besag and opening up their usual adventurous style of play.
Saint Mary's Transition Game Sees Them Past Arizona
UCLA won big over Utah in PAC Rugby Conference action, beating the Utes 84-5.
Full game here:
The Bruins got going early and it was their forwards that made it happen. A maul set up a nice cut from center Nikolas Cortessis, who then popped an offload to James Freedman and the Torrey Pines product was over.
The maul went all the way over for the next try, with flanker and co-captain Alex Cortessis doing the honors. And after that a strong scrum allowed the other co-captain, Logan Turner, to score on an eightman pick. No. 8. Another maul and skipper Cortessis had his second.
UCLA continued to cruise from there. The Bruins have remade their image and can now be thought of a team that will bruise you up front—that’s hasn’t always been the case but their pack ran the show today.
Full game here:
In the California Conference D1A, Santa Clara won well over newcomers Sacramento State 52-17 and their youngsters showed well. Also winning in the conference was Cal Poly, winning 89-5 over San Diego State.
The Mustangs' win came through some wide open play and unleashed their dangerous outside backs. Wing Nathan VanderKlugt scored the opening try but got hurt and had to leave. His replacement, Jullian Deraffele, did pretty well for himself scoring a couple of tries and setting up some others. Fullback Nicho Domine was huge on the day with several tries and was a constant attacking threat. Scrumhalf Paddy Casey was outstanding.
Full game here: