Grand Canyon and University of Arizona tied 28-28 Saturday evening in a game that did much to help build the rivalry between the two Arizona colleges.

The game was pretty dramatic to start with, but was almost more so as Ethan Van Tonder's 48-meter penalty kick drifted wide as time wound down.

Both coaches came away somewhat frustrated. Arizona dominated the scrums and held sway in the lineouts but somehow couldn't quite put the game away. Grand Canyon's work rate and athleticism had them in position to win, as they held off some late Arizona surges.

There were a lot of cards in this game; Grand Canyon got two yellows and a red, at one point going down to 12 players, and the game ended with 14 on each side as Arizona was also pinged with a yellow.

Giving up those cards hurt, said GCU Head Coach Sean O'Leary.

"You can't do that against a good team and expect to win," O'Leary explained. "We made too many mistakes."

Grand Canyon opened the scoring right off the kickoff, getting a penalty and Van Tonder sent the kick through. Arizona replied early thanks to a Jake Broselle try from a superb kick, chase, and gather. With Arizona threatening Grand Canyon picked off a Wildcat pass and converted to lead 10-7.

Arizona also also got tries from flanker Jack McCrossin (off a lineout-and-maul), hooker Zach Barker (also of a lineout-and-maul), and a penalty try (off illegally stopping a lineout-and-maul). Robert Figley didn't have to take the conversion for the penalty try, but he slotted the other three without trouble. Grand Canyon opted to try to get points when they could, and Van Tonder slotted two penalty goals in the first half. It was 28-13 about five minutes into the second half with two yellow carded players off the field when the GCU chasers off the restart tackled an Arizona player in the air and was off.

For a brief period it was 15-on-12. Eventually somehow Grand Canyon got close due to a nice counter-attack run, and then bashed if over under the posts to make it 28-20. Then Arizona got a yellow card to end the game 14-on-14. From that penalty Grand Canyon pressured and Van Tonder scored on a quick tap from Logan Hill to make it 28-25. Van Tonder then tied it up with a 42-meter kick. but his potential game-winner just drifted wide, ending the game

Arizona Head Coach Sean Duffy added that his team suffered from "early season lack of continuity" and made mistakes as well.

"Our fight and never-say-die attitude kept us in it," added O'Leary. "We now have a legitimate rivalry in Arizona and that will make us both better."