The BYU Cougars defeated UCLA 47-24 Thursday night in a rare midweek match in LA.
The Cougars are making yet another trip to warmer weather, following their nervy 29-26 win over Grand Canyon. This game was also close, with the final score perhaps not indicative of how tense it was.
BYU got on the board early after a rather innocuous mistake by the Bruins. A knock-on at midfield led to an eightman pick from Mason Patane that covered about 40 meters.
UCLA survived that initial charge and while it looked like Brigham Young might be in at the corner, the UCLA cover defense covered and, in fact, earned a holding-on penalty.
Their kick to touch didn't go particularly far, and when the lineout throw was not-straight, the Cougars took a new lineout, drove it several meters, and unleashed hooker Carson Connors to charge over in traffic.
UCLA had a chance to answer and mauled it over however Patane and prop James Tenney held it up to get the goalline drop. Back came the Bruins, and BYU were guilty of too many penalties in the red zone—Cougars skipper Tenney got a warning from referee Marquise Goodwin. But another lineout for UCLA was disrupted by BYU, and after about 12 minutes of time in the Cougars' end the Bruins had come away with nothing.
Instead BYU ran a long period of many phases, launching off a lineout and then working the pods. Former Vienna HS standout Camden Erickson, on at flyhalf, sold a nice dummy to get close; the forwards inched closer, and then scrumhalf Strider Fountaine sniped over.
Erickson converted for a 12-0 lead and soon BYU was on the front foot again led by Tenney and the second row pairing of Josh Vandenakker and Mason Hulme. The Bruins defense worked hard to protect the gainline but after center Jack Bateman cut through the forwards followed up with brutality before Tenney finished it off.
With the conversion BYU had a commanding lead after 30 minutes. The Bruins got on the front foot thanks in part to a heads-up quick-tap from scrumhalf Nico DiMatteo. The second rows of Jack Pargetter and Adam Devlin kept it going and finally, after several efforts to get over the line, flanker Oscar Shamis Jordan fought his way over.
Needing something special to build on that try, and with halftime beckoning, the Bruins got a scrum near midfield. From there DiMatteo hoofed a long, rolling kick that caught the BYU players unawares. Wing Sergio Roccia won the race against Erickson to dive onto the ball as it rolled into in-goal.
It was a good piece of vision by DiMatteo and hustle from Roccia. With the conversion it was now 19-12.
Time enough for one more play in the first half. BYU fumbled a lineout in the UCLA half, and the Bruins went to work. The Cougars were guilty of a penalty in another lineout, and from there UCLA's maul was just about perfect, resulting in hooker Christian Castro Vonk scoring the third Bruin try in the space of nine minutes.
Conversion from DiMatteo was good and it was 19-19 at the break.
