Central Washington University’s men’s team took a trip south to the San Francisco Bay Area to play Olympic Club in a warmup game for both teams.

It was a useful test for the Wildcats are they needed to get outside and play some tough, experienced competition. Olympic Club came away 19-15 winners at the Cal Maritime Academy campus.

CWU took an early lead after a Vili Toluta’u try, and then a Scott Dean conversion made it 8-0. O-Club replied with former Eagle Colin Hawley touching down and Jake Anderson, like Hawley a previous All American at Cal, kicking a penalty. That deadlocked the two teams at halftime. In the second half Carl Hendrickson scored a try for Olympic Club and Anderson added a penalty. That made it 16-8, and then Dominic Lindstrom raced in for a try and Dean’s conversion made it 16-15.

Late in the game Anderson slotted a penalty to make it 19-15, and while CWU was knocking on the door at the end of the game, they couldn’t punch it in.

“We were just happy to get outside,” said CWU Head Coach Tony Pacheco. “It was good for both teams I think. We were a bit rusty but we did some really good things at times. We weren’t polished - we couldn’t win out kickoffs and our lineout was not functional. But we were very good over the ball and our backs made some good line breaks.”

Many of those breaks couldn’t be converted into tries, and Pacheco said the team was frustrated to be within three meters of the game-winner and not be able to finish it off.

“That will come with time,” said Pacheco. 

Along with the scoring players, CWU got a good game from debutant lock/flanker Fabian Lumsden, a freshman from Epsom College in England. He was a handful. Pacheco was also pleased with the performance of his bench.

“We’re not yet an 80-minute team, so we subbed some players our early and it was good to see the subs come in and make an impact,” said the coach.

Those subs included junior prop John Marti, junior wing Larry Peneueta, and freshman loose forward Brian Nault, former HS All American.

“We’ve got a deep team,” said Pacheco.