GRR: University of Arizona
Saint Mary's defeated Arizona Saturday in Tucson, but perhaps that's not the news.
The news is that Arizona almost won, and the Wildcats held the Gaels to just the two tries in a 12-10 decision. Both teams played very good defense and both teams made mistakes on attack—Arizona was perhaps a shade impatient with some prime scoring opportunities; Saint Mary's
St. Thomas, Arkansas State, and Mount St. Mary's came out winners on Day Two of the CRAA Fall Classic Sunday in Spartnaburg, SC, but every one of those games required the winning team to overcome a deficit.
Cal Poly visited Cal for Round 1 in the Western Bracket and the Mustangs started the game on the front foot and using their kicking game to test the Bears.
A Coby Baker penalty attempt drifted wide, and after a few minutes Cal finally got into Mustangs territory. A short pass while being hit by Evan Weigold to Oliver Newall put Newall through for a 25-meter jaunt and try.
Cal swept their two games on their Arizona trip over the weekend, beating 85-10 ad Grand Canyon
On Saturday in Tucson Cal got a brace of tries each from Oliver Newall, Pat Deely, Will Shankland. Kealan O'Connell continued his form as a goalkicker with 10 conversions for 20 points.
In a tense, back-and-forth D1A clash of Wildcats, Central Washington held off Arizona 19-17.
Both teams had opportunities to put this game away and both teams will look longingly at scoring opportunities they didn't take, and in a sense this result settled nothing except to establish that Arizona and Central Washington are, at the moment, essentially equal.