Big Dogs Loudest Barkers At West Coast 7s

Cal and Arizona looked in control Saturday in the West Coast 7s, winning all three of their pool games and not allowing a single point against.

UCLA and Cal Poly also won their pools. UCLA allowed just the one try, while Cal Poly was pushed the hardest, taking victories 24-12 over CCAC, 26-7 over USC, and 24-10 over a stubborn Utah side.

Those four looked the class of the competition, but Utah was perhaps the most impressive of the 2nd-place teams. Santa Clara, San Diego, and Stanford also finished 2-1 and made the quarters. Stanford needed to hold on in the last game of the day. Pinned against their line the Cardinal won a scrum against the head and booted the ball totouch to win 12-7. SD State finished 0-3, but lost two games by a try or less.

Cal ran out a mix of younger and older players and while it was the experienced guys like Seth Purdey and Marcus Shankland who logged three tries each against Trinity Western, freshman Max Schumacher exploded for three tries and three conversions on the day. Just a few months from having led Jesuit HS to a national high school title, Schumacher seems to have taken to his Cal jersey just fine.

"Our freshmen have done a good job getting familiar with the system and we have been able to blend well thus far," said Schumacher. "Tomorrow, we will look to keep our systems straight, share the ball and stay away from selfish-play."

"Everyone who was out there today knows that once they put on a Cal jersey, they have a responsibility to give everything that they have," said Nick Bloom, who scored Cal's first try. "That's exactly what our freshmen and sophomores did: the boys stuck to the structure points and did what the coaches asked of us."

Arizona was almost as dominant, scoring one less try and kicking on more conversion than Cal—Cal scored 132 to zero, and Arizona was 129-0—and the Wildcats looked very polished. The story of young players coming in and taking care of business at Cal was repeated at Arizona.

"We set pretty high goals, and the whole intend was raising the bar," said Arizona Head Coach Sean Duffy. "We renewed an emphasis defensively. Both in defense and attack we added some things. It was really exciting for us to bring a freshman-sophomore side in Cal Poly. And the performance today validated that decision."

With the experienced players coming in, Duffy was able to allow his new players, many of whom have played at high-level HS 7s tournaments such as the NAI 7s, to shine. Wing Max Cathala was explosive, and very, very elusive and he made some very capable defenders look silly.

There's more to do, however.

"The shutouts flatter us," said Duffy. "We still need to get some continuity down."

Day Two opening round of matches