SJSU, ARC, and Fresno State Open with Wins in California Conference
SJSU, ARC, and Fresno State Open with Wins in California Conference
The California D1AA Conference kicked off with three games and three of the teams thought to be conference title challengers all winning.
San Jose State opened their account with a 75-7 win over Nevada Reno.
“It was a solid first match out of the gates,” said Head Coach Nick Schlobohm, whose team allowed just a penalty try on the day.
Obed Neemia and Hendrik van Niekerk led a strong effort in set piece, while CJ Latimer was very difficult to contain out wide.
“They were able to help us attack everywhere on the field,” said Schlobohm.
American River beat Stanford 79-14 with scrumhalf Dylan Alexander scoring three tries. Flyhalf Tevita Vaea added two, as did finisher Jayston Koi. Vaea ended up with 18 points.
Fresno State defeated Cal Maritime in a close one. Cal Maritime has just joined D1AA after playing in NCR’s D2. New Head Coach Sean Lindersmith looked at his team and decided they could, and should, compete at the D1AA level.
Since then, Lindersmith has had to step away from coaching for family reasons, but he was able to recruit a strong coaching team to take over. Despite the loss, the Keelhaulers made a good accounting of themselves.
They started the better of the two and took a 21-12 lead into the halftime break. They added another try to that to make it 28-12.
After that try, Fresno State started to find their mojo.
“We started playing within the pattern with some success,” said Fresno State Head Coach Lee Garrow.
The result was 34 straight points before the Keelhaulers scored again. Final score Fresno State 46, Cal Maritime 35.
Damon Page and David Arkama each scored two tries. The Bulldogs also got tries from Mikanen Guevaro, TJ Williams, Shando Lopez, and Mike Machado.
So it was a good comeback for Fresno State and two comfortable wins for the others. Next week Chico State and University of San Francisco gets into the action. In the South, Arizona State is coming off a loss to Grand Canyon and Claremont Colleges is coming off a nice win over Cal State Long Beach. They will play each other while Fresno State faces University of San Diego.
