Feb. 23, 2002

BERKELEY, Calif. - The Cal varsity rugby squad (8-0) completed back to back home matches versus the Universities of Victoria and British Columbia this week and came out on top Saturday, 47-13 over the visiting Thunderbirds, on Witter Rugby Field.

After playing two matches last weekend (New Mexico and New Mexico State) and a close match on Wednesday (University of Victoria), the mental and physical fatigue of four games in one week began to wear on some of the Bears' starters. Nonetheless, Cal faced an outmatched UBC team and easily won by playing atypical California rugby.

"It was a good victory but I didn't think we played our best rugby," said head coach Jack Clark. "We have much better rugby inside of us but as far as the season goes, it is still early days."

In a first half that was marked by its physical and aggressive play, the Bears took a narrow 20-6 margin into halftime. The first 40 minutes saw frequent penalties resulting in stop-and-start play that seemed to affect both teams' rhythms. Senior flyhalf Matt Sherman got things started for the Bears with a try from 5m out in the game's fourth minute. UBC answered five minutes later with a penalty kick of their own to narrow the lead to 7-3 Bears. After each team traded penalty kicks, senior Alex Houser took an acrobatic Mark Verlatti pass into the tryzone to give Cal a 20-6 margin going into the break.

"There were a lot of stoppages for both sides," said Clark. "We were in control of the game the whole way but the whistles really disrupted the flow of the game."

In the second half the Bears were visually tired and made some mistakes, but continued to roll putting up 27 more points. The strong backline performances from Houser, Verlatti and junior Mike Bonetto shut down the UBC attack for most of the second half and showed attacking prowess with the ball-in-hand. In fact, the backline players were responsible for 32 of Cal's 47 points, with Sherman, Houser and Dave Guest leading the way.

The Thunderbirds' lone try of the game came off of a broken play in the 56th minute as the UBC player fumbled the pass of his own foot before picking it up again to score the try. The try of the game for the Bears belonged to senior Kort Schubert, who recorded 10 points on the day. After a sustained drive down the field, equipped with 5-6 phases, Schubert took the Sherman pass and made his way into the tryzone to put the Bears up 30-6. All-American junior Mike MacDonald finished things off in the game's final minutes with his try from from 5m out.

Guest led the Bears in scoring with 22 points on four penalty kicks and five two-point conversions.

Cal concludes its three-game homestand when it hosts Sacramento State on Saturday, March 2, at 1:00 p.m. on Witter Rugby Field in Berkeley.

	1st Half	2nd Half	Final
Cal	      20	      27	   47
UBC	       6	       7	   13


Scoring:
4:00	CAL   - Sherman (try)  (Guest conversion)
9:00 	UBC   - (penalty kick)
11:00	CAL   - Guest (penalty kick)
16:00	CAL   - Guest (penalty kick)
22:00	UBC   - (penalty kick)
25:00	CAL   - Houser (try) (Guest conversion)
47:00	CAL   - Guest (penalty kick)
53:00	CAL   - Schubert (try) (Guest conversion)
56:00	UBC   - (try) (2-point conversion)
59:00	CAL   - Guest (penalty kick)
68:00	CAL   - Schubert (try) (Guest conversion)
78:00	CAL   - MacDonald (try) (Guest conversion)

Substitutions: 53rd minute, John Willenborg in for Josh Downes & Tony Vontz in for Jacob Waasdorp, 67th minute, Justin Parkhurst in for Chris Miller & Mike Bonetto in for Mark Verlatti, 82nd minute, James Orlando in for Kyle Khasigian.

Cal Record: 8-0-0