The curtain drops on the spring DIAA playoffs in a few weeks and 

San Diego is the team in Gold Coast after beating Cal State Long Beach 31-19 to move to 3-0 in the conference.

Long Beach State was a tough opponent and opened the game putting San Diego under pressure. The 49ers came close to scoring, but the Torero defense held on desperately, with Michael Lewis and Logan Tatum making crucial turnovers.

This all happened in the opening minutes, but in retrospect could have been a turning point. Had Long Beach State scored early, they might have been able to exert control of the scoreboard early and changed the tenor of the game. This early defensive stand by USD may well have won the conference for them.

CSULB did score first, but it took them 20 minutes—flyhalf Victor Gomez zipped over for a 5-0 lead. But San Diego then turned the field position around, using kicks from Lewis and Jordan Sandoval to pin Long Beach in their own end. The Toreros got tries from rangy lock Hayden Laccabue and from prop Oliver Kane. Sandoval converted the first one and San Diego led 12-5 at halftime.

In the second half it was USD's turn to pressure early, and they scored from it. A deep kick from Lewis was chased impressively by wing Paul Habeeb. He made the key tackle that allowed the San Diego support to swarm over and force a holding-on penalty. Lewis tapped quickly and snaked over for the try and a 19-5 lead.

Long Beach stormed back just minutes later to score through fullback Jack Cortinas, making it 19-12 with the Gomez conversion.

But San Diego was able to keep USD at arm's length with a try from center Felix Morales, converted by Sandoval. Long Beach scored immediately after with center Joseph Nunez doing the honors and Gomez converting. But a stolen lineout and a bruising run from Jake Mitten set up an attack for prop Tyler Shelley to score and cap the game at 31-19.

The result of this is that San Diego is likely the team to represent the Gold Coast in the DIAA spring playoffs run by American Collegiate Rugby (ACR). Another of those teams is Western Washington, who, ironically, will be in San Diego next week for a tour that was delayed from January. The other teams set to be in the western bracket will be decided after the Pacific Western Conference playoffs (semifinals April 1, finals April 3). Those playoffs will be hosted by Fresno State, who are favored to win after after going 6-0 in league play.

Right now, as of this writing, it's expected that the #2 team from the Pac West will also get to the DIAA playoffs western bracket in Bellingham, Wash.

In the East, the matchups are set with Kansas taking on UT San Antonio and Texas State taking on Minnesota April 9-10 in Kansas.