Stanford beat Cal in impressive fashion Saturday to win the CRAA Women's D1 title, but it wasn't all Cardinal, as the Bears showed that, yes, they can play rugby too.
Cal came out determined to hit Stanford hard and pressure them into mistakes.
It was a good plan, but when they were a bit over-eager, the Bears drifted offside. Such a drifting led to a quick tap from Stanford scrumhalf Emma Cruz saw her feed Laura Bocek. The flyhalf caught and passed in one smooth movement, taking a hit at the same time, and Journey Washingtonhigh was free to run into the corner.
The Stanford forwards put one over for a 14-0 lead, but Cal continued to pressure the Cardinal. They got a boost from a brilliant individual play as center Mariah Overby faked a switch move and sidestepped through the gap that created. Overby’s acceleration and elusiveness beat five tacklers to take it in from over 50 meters.
But you can’t give away momentum like that. A knock-on right off the restart led to a Stanford scrum on the Cal 22. No. 8 Kirsten Lees picked up and almost made it to the line. In the end prop Vanessa Onuoha was driven over.
Cal mistakes led to the next try. They were penalized for holding-on inside the Stanford half. Stanford took the lineout, lost the ball forward, but in the ensuing scrum, Cal was penalized for losing their binding. Stanford took the lineout again, this time well inside the Cal 22, drove the maul, and four passes later Washingtonhigh fought her way over.
Cal camped out in Stanford’s half for about seven minutes or so. They were halted repeatedly, but a tap and run from No. 8 and co-captain May Lauritzen got them close and another penalty saw Lauritzen tap again. Finally Overby set up prop Lupita Gonzalez for the try. That made it 26-10 with halftime looming.
Both teams had chances to get on the scoreboard again before halftime, but gave up penalties to hurt themselves and the score remained 26-10 at the break.
Cal got themselves into the Stanford end early in the second half. They had made an interesting change, putting Jenna Ho-Sing-Loy in at scrumhalf and moving starting scrumhalf Lorie Martinez to the wing.
Wing Eve Mango got them going with a counter off a kick, and then prop Sydney Yasukochi carried hard. After a little consolidation, the ball was sent out to Martinez to score in the corner and make it 26-15.
