This is most certainly a different Saint Mary's team than the one that played the first half of the Palmetto Bowl in December.

That's not really a surprise. The Gaels were just entering into their season and were playing a peak-fall Life University. But you still want to see the evidence. These last two weeks, Saint Mary's has beaten BYU and Central Washington. Both games were close for quite a while, but the run-and-gun Gaels pulled away in entertaining fashion both times.

This week Central came in having won a snowbound battle with Cal Poly. Now the Wildcats would be charged with containing a Saint Mary's team that would run from anywhere. And they sort of did. Of course Saint Mary's kicked, too, but they were always a threat to run and appeared to have gained ... not confidence, but perhaps comfort with their style of play after the win over BYU.

As it was the Wildcats held on well, and then, about midway through the first half, they struck. Inside the Saint Mary's 22 flyhalf Jac Tregoning popped a little chip that was taken well by Oscar Treacy in the air. Treacy still had some players to beat and not much space to do it in, but he managed and stretch over in the very cornerest of corners to score. Central Washington 5, Saint Mary's 0.

The Gaels answered. They forced a penalty in midfield, took the lineout, and went smoothly wide to fullback Mario Storti. He skated through a gap and then offloaded to Sia Ofa coming in off the sideline. The winger sliced right back toward the middle and beat everyone to the posts. Hunter Modlin converted and it was 7-5.

Speaking after the game, Ofa said this was something they'd been working on, especially if defenses shot up quickly to stifle space. "All credit to Mario," he added.

Tregoning answered with a penalty goal, but as halftime loomed Saint Mary's pressed once more. Ethan Younger nabbed a wide kick on the wing and looked for all the world to be free and clear to race to the tryline. But he stepped on the touchline and the play was called back. Saint Mary's had the penalty advantage, however. They took the lineout and the forwards crashed up to the line before the backs sent it wide to Younger. His run was a bit shorter this time, but he got the try. Modlin converted from the sideline and the half ended 14-8 for Saint Mary's.

Once again scoring early in the half was tough for both teams. Central's defense was impressive, as was that of Saint Mary's. Both teams were forced to kick a bit more than they would have liked.

"We've got a pretty high IQ team and they are a high IQ team, so it was a bit of a chess match," said Saint Mary's Head Coach Tim O'Brien. 

And Central Washington made it a much tighter chess match. They worked their lineout and maul, and when Campbell Robb was stopped after he bounced off the back, they sent it wide to Treacy for the wing's second. Now it was 14-13. The Saint Mary's response was a case of "hey this worked earlier, let's try it again." Off a scrum just inside the CWU half, the Gaels spun it wide to Storti. This time it was less of a switch move and more of a pass-and-cutback, but it worked again, and Ofa scampered his way to his second try.