Cross-Border and Cross-Divisional Action on West Coast

01.19.2026College Men

UCSB vs UC Davis 2026. Photo Molly Graw.

UCSB got another win. Photo Molly Graw.

Author: Alex Goff

Let's take a look at what happened in men's college rugby on the West Coast.

It was a holiday weekend, and several teams had the weekend off. But not all.

Cal came out of the Storer Classic with victories, including a 43-0 win over UCLA which is really just a precursor to their full-length tilt later in the season.

That was just some of the collegiate rugby play in the far West this past weekend.

Grand Canyon won 94-17 over Arizona State in a game that got plenty of their younger players on the field.

University of Washington took a tour of NorCal, losing to a Saint Mary’s XV and then facing off with San Jose State. The Spartans won that 34-26 in a good, competitive meeting between D1AA teams.

San Jose State was led by scrumhalf Miguel Galan, who showed a high work rate and kept the tempo going. Center RJ Anderson ran well and those two helped pace the attack.

“We had several try-scorers across all position groups, giving us a well-rounded attack,” said Head Coach Nick Schlobohm.

In another non-conference game, Western Washington opted to go north, and played Trinity Western in British Columbia. TW came away with a 36-19 win.

But it was not a bad showing for the Vikes. WWU led 19-18 with 20 minutes to go.

Speedster Eli Ashmann was a try-scorer for Western Washington, as were Sho Sekiya and Kellan Lafave.
But late in the game Trinity Western finished the stronger with an 18-point run.

UCSB won a D1A/D1AA crossover match 48-21 over Stanford. For the Gauchos it was a chance to blood some younger players, and also build on a good start vs UC Davis as they look ahead to UCLA.

New winger Elan Goetz scored two tries, and the other wing, Will Gezi, also added a brace.

Goetz is starting to burn up the grass this winter, and scored a spectacular try off a kick, beating multiple defenders as he raced in from inside his own 22.

And, finally, the big game, which was Saint Mary's winning in quite impressive fashion over Arizona 68-15. Arizona is a good team, and perhaps were a little cold coming out of their winter break. But they also just found themselves chasing the game.

For the Gaels, who got a big performance from two young props in Meitav Arusha and Josef Mokofisi after John Henry Rouse and John Battle were late scratches.

"Really proud of their work, work rate, and positional prowess," said Head Coach Tim O'Brien. Mokofisi, who hadn't started in a B-side match, let alone an A-side match, found out he was starting on Friday afternoon, and was smiling the rest of the day.

Explosive First Half Sees Saint Mary's Past Wildcats