Wild Game in Berkeley as Saint Mary's Edges Cal
Wild Game in Berkeley as Saint Mary's Edges Cal
Two tries just after the 60th minute stymied a Cal comeback and brought Saint Mary's a rather remarkable 38-34 victory over Cal.
Both head coaches lauded the game and the day.
“Congratulations to Saint Mary’s; that was a proper game of first XV rugby,” Cal Head Coach Jack Clark said.
"It was great for college rugby, great for rugby," added Saint Mary's Head Coach Tim O'Brien. "I can't say I'm totally cool if we lose, but win or lose it was a great day for rugby."
The Gaels struck first, putting back-to-back tries on the board in the first 15 minutes to lead 12-0. Cal answered with a try from No. 8 Alex Aguero and Max Schumacher's conversion made it 12-7. Saint Mary's answered and led 19-7. But a run from Evan Weigold and a chargedown from Aguero made it 19-19 just before halftime.
As the break approached the Gaels scored their fourth try and took a 26-19 lead into halftime.
But Cal surged back in the second half. Schumacher added a penalty goal and that was followed soon thereafter by a try from Cal Liebowitz and one from Schumacher made it 34-26 for Cal. Cal had other chances but penalties undercut them.
Then in quick succession Saint Mary's scored twice to go ahead 38-34.
Joe Marchant, Dom Besag, and Mario Storti all showed well for Saint Mary's.
"Joe led from the front in a very good way," said O'Brien. "The forwards coaches have been brilliant and the forwards kept us competitive. The team embraces a free-flowing style but really the credit goes to the leadership group on the team —captain, club president, and six other players. I think players need to take on more responsibility and they deserve a lot of credit.
Both sides made some lineup changes. For Cal, they ran out a new halfback combination with Solomon Williams coming in at scrumhalf and Schumacher moving from fullback to flyhalf. For Saint Mary's, the key move may have been putting Inoke Waqavesi at scrumhalf. Waqavesi had played in the #9 jersey twice before, but it's still new to him and a bit of a novelty for the team.
"I asked him on Tuesday: 'how do you feel about playing 9?' and he said 'OK.' He was commendable and he is going to evolved really well in that position." O'Brien aso switched centers Besag and Storti so that were was more alternation of newer players and experienced players.
The game itself had its shifts, with Saint Mary's College struggling to keep their stadium grass strong the match had to be moved to Cal.
"Jack Clark was fantastic about accommodating this," said O'Brien. The game was relatively early in the day, but Witter Rugby Field welcomed a massive crowd and the atmosphere was electric.
"It was quite a battle, and with the against-all-odds situation that Saint Mary's is in, that makes it pretty exciting," said O'Brien.
For Cal, they play BYU on Friday (moved from Saturday due to an LDS conference) in Provo, Utah. Clark is hoping his team has learned some of the lessons.
“That’s two matches in a row against good teams where we’ve had the ball at the end of the game with a chance to win,” Clark said. “Today, we copped some untimely penalties and had some skill breakdowns in the closing segments of the match. We just need to stay at it and see if we can climb to the next level of our development. Something good might happen if we just stay at it.”
