Thriller in Wildcats-vs-Wildcats
Thriller in Wildcats-vs-Wildcats
Senior Day at Central Washington provided a thriller as the Wildcats defeated Arizona on the final play.
Finally able to play in some halfway decent weather, Central Washington was able to open it up a little. They took the lead eight minutes in off a tramline move. They ran Oscar Treacy into the weak side off a scrum and while he was stopped, Central worked one forward pod the other direction and then quickly back to Treacy on the wing. This time Treacy took off down the sideline and caught Arizona worrying too much about the open side. Off he went and Jac Tregoning converted brilliantly from the sideline and it was 7-0.
Arizona bounced right back, getting a penalty and working it close. CWU defended doggedly, even when the desert Wildcats sent a wide skip pass to wing Jake Schumacher. Finally Arizona got a scrum near the posts and sent winger Nick Morgan right over the line.
Matteo Berenger converted and it was 7-7.
CWU had a couple of good scoring chances after that. Defensive pressure almost produced a big mistake from Arizona but somehow they survived. Central than ran a move off a lineout at midfield that almost broke open, but Schumacher made a try-saving tackle.
But the reprieve was short-lived. When Arizona couldn’t connect on a lineout in their half and the ball fell to CWU hands and then close-in Daniel McQuade picked up and was over. Tregoning whacked over the kick and it was 14-7.
As halftime approached Central Washington pressured Arizona’s line once more, but the defense forced a knock-on. From scrum we went to a free kick and now it was CWU’s turn to be caught a bit out of position.
Morgan kicked ahead and the chase was good. CWU was penalized on the counter and from there the Wildcats (the Arizona ones) set up the lineout and mauled it over. It took a while, but when the maul splintered hooker Cameron Blair hung in there and kept going to score.
Central had a chance just as the first half ended, but once again the Arizona red zone defense stopped them, and that was the break.
In the second half Blair once again struck, once again off a penalty by Central, once again a lineout, and once again the maul split up before Blair and his teammates carried it over.
So that made it 17-14 Arizona.
Finally CWU figured out what to do about the Arizona maul and they were punished anyway. Arizona worked it closer to the posts, inched ever closer, and finally picked up and scored. The kick was good and 10 minutes into the second half Arizona had a 10-point lead at 24-14.
Midway through the second half it seemed like Arizona might put it away. They held off CWU at their tryline, worked their way to the middle of the field. From a scrum they punched it up the middle and then center Mattox King lofted a wide pass to the wing and an inside pass put them over from 50 meters out.
It was an astonishing try and now Arizona was surely in control at 29-14 with 19 minutes to go.
And Central didn’t look like they would get in scoring position. That is, until with about 11 minutes left Treacy took off and then chipped the ball ahead. His chase was good and Arizona couldn’t control the ball. The result was a penalty, and while Central didn’t score from that, eventually they got another penalty, this time off a scrum, tapped, and Andrew Miller scored.
That made it 29-19. Coming off the restart, CWU ran down the field with a series off offloads out of contact that had Arizona scrambling.
The result was another Arizona penalty, another CWU lineout, and they mauled it over with Drew Farrington doing the honors. Now it was 29-24 with Arizona still in the lead about about five minutes left.
Then, a mistake.
Wisely Arizona looked to kick the restart deep and pin CWU back. But they overcooked it and the ball rolled into in-goal. Ball touched down and Central had a scrum at the center of the field. There was still work to do, but now the ball was in the middle of the field, giving Central Washington hope.
With time essentially up on the clock, Central won a lineout, ran a couple of pods, and then set Tregoning deep behind the ruck. He sent it wide to Treacy, and why wouldn’t you want your prime gamebreaker to have the ball at this point.
The Rudy Scholz Award nominee weaved his way through six defenders before he was dragged down. But as he was tackled Treacy offloaded to Benji Ward. He had work to do, as five defenders converged on Ward, but they all met over the tryline. Try Central Washington and a tie game. Tregoning was good on the kick and CWU had a victory that could hardly be more dramatic.
Take a look at UCLA, Central Washington, and Arizona, and you see UCLA 30 Arizona 27, CWU 47 UCLA 41, and CWU 31 Arizona 29. Just a few kicks separate them all.
