The University of Washington improved to 3-0 in the Northwest Collegiate Rugby Conference (NCRC) with a 28-5 defeat of Oregon Saturday.

The two rivals battled hard in a game that was only 8-0 UW at halftime. Washington broke the game open in the second half and led 28-0 before Oregon punched one in. Jack Stimson scored two tries and so did Psalm Wooching, a former HS All American who went on to play football at Washington. Korey Neuhs also scored a try in a game where the Huskies converted none.

The game was very physical and the teams frequently had to turn to their benches to fill in for battered players.

Washington is now 3-0 having also beaten Gonzaga and Eastern Washington. The win over Oregon is a big one, but Western Washington has yet to play a conference game.

Washington State opened up their account with a 29-19 defeat of Western Oregon. The game was very close, in part because the WOU defense didn't let WSU convert pressure into tries. Fortunately for the Cougars, Sean Powell nothced four penalty goals. Pacer Said, Neal Tilbury, and Kyle Vermuelen scored tries for WSU.

And Gonzaga notched the team's first conference victory with a 22-7 decision over Eastern Washington. The wind was a factor in the game and Gonzaga had a tough time in the teeth of the breeze. But after halftime the Bulldogs were able to use their kicking game to pin EWU back. 

"We are still adjusting a bit to the DI league," said student coach Matthew Hoffeditz. "But yesterday was a great sign and we hope to build off of it. We play WSU this next weekend and since I've been at GU, we've played them twice in 15s and were able to compete but never beat them. So it'll be interesting to see how we are able to compete."

Depth will be an issue for the smaller squads as the season progresses.

Meanwhile, Western Washington played a non-conference game against Oregon State and won 26-16 in Corvallis. Nate Muir and Mac Stone led the Vikings in the forwards and Nick Solimano was outstanding at flyhalf, setting up freshman Brandon Burn and Nick Bonovich for several big runs. But WWU also got some bad news as captain Louis Henson suffered a dislocated patella and will be out for three weeks.

Below are the conference standings and next week's matchups: