Saint Mary's Edges Tenacious Arizona by Width of a Goalpost

01.19.2025College Men

Saint Mary's defeated Arizona Saturday in Tucson, but perhaps that's not the news.

The news is that Arizona almost won, and the Wildcats held the Gaels to just the two tries in a 12-10 decision. Both teams played very good defense and both teams made mistakes on attack—Arizona was perhaps a shade impatient with some prime scoring opportunities; Saint Mary's

The first half was played heavily in the Saint Mary's end. Led by the hard work of hooker and captain Cameron Blair and flanker Aston Gradwick-Light in the forwards, and with the midfield of Ted Champion and Mattox King laying in some effective tackles, the Gaels had trouble exiting.

Arizona kept up the defensive pressure and fullback Matteo Berenger was elusive with ball in hand. He could kick, too, and opened the scoring with a penalty goal.

The Wildcats came very close to scoring, with a tackle from Saint Mary's fullback Mario Storti knocking the ball loose at the tryline. But moments later, midway through the first half, they did the job with a well-executed maul allowing Blair to touch down. Berenger converted to make it 10-0 for Arizona.

All of this resulted in frustration for Saint Mary's, and they were seen to push the pace a bit too much, and some discipline breakdowns didn't help.

Finally, though, Saint Mary's was able to get out of some trouble. The Gaels forced a holding-on penalty inside their own 22, and got full value from Storti's kick to touch. From there they ran their big ballcarriers to test the Arizona tacklers. Ultimately it was a player loitering offside that broke that stalemate. So now Saint Mary's had a lineout well inside the Arizona 22. The big men started the maul but now was the time move the ball. After getting close to the line on a couple of runs they unleashed several passed back and forth, with a nice pop inside to center Sake Tukuafu to zip over. That made it 10-5.

Arizona almost answered. Lock Andreas Andersson went on a big, charging run. That was followed up with a carry from No. 8 Aiden Kemp before the Wildcats sent it wide. The pass to Champion was low so he booted it ahead. The ball rolled tantalizingly to the tryline where Storti struggled to gather it in. Champion almost nabbed it to score but somehow the Gaels won that ruck and immediately countered and then kicked clear, with Dom Besag executing a 50-22 on a kick that went a good 60 meters.

Arizona, however, defended desperately and kept Saint Mary's out. Discipline, however, was an up-and-down affair. Lock Jack Bresland was penalized for hands in the rucks, and when he mouthed off to referee Mike Lawrenson, Arizona was marched off another 10 meters and Bresland was shown a yellow card. Saint Mary's ran the lineout-and-maul. It was a sloppy maul from Saint Mary's and after some further play and a referee-AR discussion, the Gaels were penalized for obstruction on that maul, and that killed a prime scoring chance for Saint Mary's.

So an eventful first half, and the second half would be intense but would lack any points until very late in the game. Saint Mary's started the second half much the same way that Arizona started the first—on the front foot and in the opposition half. Arizona was able to get out of trouble and pressure Saint Mary's. That pressure intensified when Saint Mary's was penalized for no-tackler-release near his tryline. That happened just as Breslan's yellow card expired, and now Arizona had the man advantage and a lineout five meters out.

Arizona was able to find a tiny bit of space on the weak side and wing Jack Schumacher stretched over with tacklers all over him. Try? NO try. Lost forward. The Wildcats had another chance at it, though, thanks to another penalty. The Saint Mary's tackling was outstanding, but after one more penalty Gaels scrumhalf Hunter Modlin was shown a yellow card.

And this time Arizona was called for a double-movement, crawling on the ground. This was a case of a couple of extra movement of the knees as the penalized player was of two minds whether to stretch to score, or rotate to present the ball. Either way, Saint Mary's was out of trouble.

Sort of.

The ball was still well inside the Saint Mary's half for several minutes. It wasn't until about 12 minutes to go that the Gaels had any meaningful possession inside the Arizona half. We had not really seen Saint Mary's fly in space. But they finally got something going. Off a lineout Besag cut through and then the ball was sent wide to the wing Iosefa Toia’ivao, who sidestepped his way forward. Toia’ivao was tackled high and Saint Mary's tapped quickly and spun it quickly to Siale Ofa on the opposite wing. The freshman cut back inside and took off, only to be dragged down by Schumacher. The ball was recycled quickly and Besag fed flanker Sione Ofa (Siale's oler brother), and Ofa fended off one and was in under the posts.

It was the type of rugby you expected from Saint Mary's, but which Arizona had been able to prevent for most of the game.

That tied it up 10-10, and Storti slotted the conversion for a 12-10 lead.

Now what Saint Mary's wanted to do was extend that lead or, failing that, run out the clock. Arizona pinned the Gaels in their half and their need was a score of any kind to regain the lead. Ultimately they got that chance. Saint Mary's was penalized for boring in at a scrum and Berenger was given the ball to kick a penalty. It wasn't an easy shot—the mark was about 30 meters out and on the far right-hand side of the field. Left-footed, Berenger was on the correct side for his kicking style, and his kick was sell-sited, curved right, and hit the left-hand post.

Saint Mary's grabbed the ball and were able to kick clear.

That wasn't the end of it. Saint Mary's had a good scoring chance but lost the ball. Arizona stole a lineout and ran through nine phases at the Saint Mary's 22. The Gaels did not miss a tackle, but when flyhalf Saxon Gerstl was tackled he popped an offload for flanker Tanner DeMassa, but he was unable to gather the ball. Had he done so he might have been through to score—by such small margins are these games decided.

From there Saint Mary's won the ensuing scrum and then kicked to touch to end the game.

It was a game Arizona could have won, without a doubt. It was a game in which Saint Mary's did not impose their will, but did showcase a commitment to defense. Low-scoring, yet dramatic, it certainly put the nation on notice that Arizona has something to offer.

Saint Mary's 12
Tries: Tukuafu, Sione Ofa
Convs: Storti

Arizona 10
Tries: Blair
Convs: Berenger
Pens: Berenger

Full game here>>