San Diego State defeated Cal Poly 13-8 Saturday in a preseason meeting between the two California Conference foes.

This was not the conference meeting between the Aztecs and Mustangs, and more served as a warmup for the conference season. Certainly is wasn’t an especially smooth game, where neither team was able to use the full width of the field the way they might like.

SD State scored within the first three minutes on a grubber down the right side and a nice chase from the Aztecs backs to take a 5-0 lead - Ari Fink did the honors. Cal Poly replied with a penalty goal, and it stayed 5-3 for the rest of the first half.

A nifty break and good ball-handling got the ball to Jacob Zinda, whose try extended the SD State lead to 10-3. Then Cal Poly pushed into SD State territory, and while the Aztecs got a scrum put-in five meters from their tryline, the Mustangs pack stole the scrum, and scored around the weak side to make it 10-8. Harrison Barkham then slotted a penalty goal for SD State to make it 13-8.

A good portion of the last several minutes knocking on the door. Twice Cal Poly had a penalty that they opted to take as a scrum, and twice they were stopped. Finally, SD State turned the ball over and cleared, and the lineout that ensued from that play ended with a knock-on, and the game was over.

For both teams, this was an important game in that it knocked off some of the rust without any conference consequences.

“The team has progressed well since our winter camp two weeks ago,” said SD State Head Coach Alex Lichtig. “The boys have put in some hard work and our team is continuing to improve. We always look forward to playing Cal Poly as it's a fast-paced and physical match.”

Austin Switzer is a smart and experienced captain flyhalf for the Aztecs, and he is also the team captain. He suffered a season-ending injury last year in the opener against Cal Poly, so his return is a big boost.

The Aztec front row is impressive, with Adahir Aguilera, a senior, a physical presence, and sophomore prop Jake Jorstad back from the USA U20 camp. He has an excellent work ethic.

For Cal Poly, they beat the Pleasanton Jesters U23 team out of Northern California and were undefeated in what Head Coach James Tesoriero acknowledged was a fairly soft schedule.

SD State, he said, was their first real test of the season, but heavy rain in California has disrupted their training.

Both teams are slated to play BYU this week - Cal Poly on Thursday and San Diego State on Saturday. BYU has not released their schedule officially, but those are the expected opening games for the Cougars.

Video footage of the game is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xFElfd9YD0&feature=youtu.be