San Diego State dispatched Cal Poly 32-18 Saturday in a game between two California Conference rivals that wasn’t an actual conference game.

The longtime rivals like to play each other twice, so this game serves as a conference warmup, and the second clash will be the conference game.

Cal Poly was coming off a big loss to Cal and was looking to get some points and build on some of the things they learned playing the Bears. But at the same time, the Mustangs were dealing with a bunch of injuries.

That injury list got longer during the first half.

“San Diego State was the better team, but we were very poor and under-strength by our standards,” said Cal Poly Coach James Tesoriero. “They scored most of their tries from our errors.”

As for the Aztecs, Coach Alex Lichtig was pretty pleased with the day. 

“We were able to put some pressure on them, especially in the scrum,” said Lichtig. “Our lineout, which has struggled at times, was better and we were able to win some ball there.”

But, really, it was about winning the battle in the front row, where Johnny Abdulahad, Gil Covey, and Adahir Aguilera performed admirably and logged all 80 minutes. 

“We have no start players, just a good group of guys,” said Lichtig, “but our front row was very good.”

It gets serious now, as San Diego State hosts St. Mary’s this coming weekend in the opening round of California Conference play. Cal Poly won’t play for another two weeks, and with their injury problems, they’ll need it.

And while the Aztecs are happy to start conference play, Lichtig noted that life in DIA isn’t all about conference games.

“With the playoffs the way they are, where they’re based on the rankings, then we have to play well in every game,” he said. “Every game is a conference game, in that sense.”