Central Washington Makes Another Statement

02.16.2023College Men

Did Central Washington just make a claim to be ranked #1 in DIA?

Probably up there in the mountains of Ellensburg, Wash. it doesn't really matter. What matters is they are putting in performances.

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The latest of those was a 29-26 victory over Saint Mary's ... at Saint Mary's. That doesn't happen too often. Central had actually never beaten the Gaels before. This was following on from a victory over UCLA ... at UCLA and a victory over UBC ... that's right, in Vancouver.

CWU Head Coach Todd Thornley is quick to point out that this is just a step in the journey, not the completion.

"Just a lot of hard work from a lot of people," Thornley told GRR. "We’ve had a group of guys who have been together for a while who are not just relying on their experience but working hard to learn and grow and get better."

CWU led most of the game, although it was close. Certainly the Gaels weren't slowly pulling away. It was a game of momentum shifts and also of mistakes.

"Both sides has opportunities to put the other under pressure, and I think both of us felt we'd missed on some opportunities," explained Thornley. So when Saint Mary's scored two tries to claw back from 22-14 to a 26-22 lead, the Wildcats would be forgiven for thinking the tsunami was coming.

"Did I think 'here we go'? There was a little bit of that," said Thornley. "Saint Mary’s can get rolling and inside of 10 minutes can put in three tries. But really I thought 'man, we've got to take some opportunities.' And we managed to get the ball and do just that. Saint Mary’s defensively put you under so much pressure. They play expansive rugby and, yeah we cracked a couple of times. But we talk about lot about staying calm and look for the next moment.

With flanker Albert O'Shannessey leading the way they didn't collapse or panic.

"Albert is a natural leader and he's been leading by example, doing a lot of work off the ball, arriving early at the ruck," said Thornley. "We's a one-percenter."

He and other senior players just stayed calm and looked at the time they had and what they could do next. They needed to stay disciplined, which they did, and patient.

"You’ve got those momentum shifts, but under the posts we were very calm."

At GRR our vote for the D1A rankings has CWU at #2. Can they keep that? They have plenty of opportunities with March games against Army (GRR #6), BYU (GRR #7), Arizona (GRR #10), and Lindenwood (GRR #3). Shying away from no one, Central Washington is just looking at the next task.

Central Washington Makes Another Statement

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