With their 41-28 defeat of Stanford, Chico State is now firmly in 2nd place in the Pacific West DIAA Conference, and have UC Davis in their sights.

Davis, of course, won the first-round meeting between the two teams 18-15, and that might have set the tone for Chico State’s season. But they have the playoffs in April to redeem themselves, and they think they can.

“The Davis game was tough for us because we defended about 80% of the time,” said Chico State Head Coach Lucas Bradbury. “But for our guys, the Stanford game was a big one because they beat us last year in the conference final. In that game we have three tries disallowed, so there was kind of a payback.”

Bradbury said his team played some class rugby, and with the seniors playing possibly their final home game, there was a lot of emotion involved. The forwards, led by No. 8 Charles Brennan, flanker Oisin Collins, and prop Ian McLens have continually improved, and have benefited from the emergence of Broc Hayes, who is relatively new to the game but has pick it up well.

In the backs, fullback Danny Lalor is an SFGG U19 product who has been a nice safety net for them./

Lalor kicked 11 points against Stanford, and center JW Davis scored two tries while McLens, lock Mason Lammers, center Matt Zarchin, and lock Brandon Johnson all touched down once. The Chico backline broke open a tight game, as at halftime Chico’s coaches made some adjustments to find Stanford’s weaker spots. They proved to be out wide.

The approach in the Stanford game was that it was tantamount to a championship game, said Bradbury. If they wanted to be sure to finish in playoff position, they needed to win. And now they are looking to keep their top two spot.

“It’s final football for us every week,” said Bradbury. “We had to beat Stanford, and now we’re looking at Nevada, who are trying to get into the semifinals. And the last game of the season is Sac State, and right now they’re just on the outside, so it’s final football all the way. We feel as if we’ve been in playoff mode for several weeks now.”

And they will for a few weeks more.

Right now UC Davis, Chico State, Nevada, and Stanford are in the semis, in that order. Everyone has two games left.

If Sac State can upset Chico State in April, then they might get in. San Jose State is also in the hunt, but needs to upset UC Davis this week. Stanford, for their part, have a chance to bypass Nevada by beating Fresno State this week, and then the Wolfpack from Reno in April.

March 7 Pac West Results

Sac State 5-61 UC Davis

SJSU 26-12 Fresno

UNR Forfeit win over SFSU

Chico State 41-28 Stanford

Pacific West Standings