Feb. 13, 2004

BERKELEY, Calif. - California routed Chico State, 33-10, Friday night at Witter Field. The Golden Bears fielded a mixed team with several starters, including Mike MacDonald, rotated out of the starting lineup. Additionally, Andy Hanks was a late scratch from the team sheet, suffering from back spasms during the warm up. Dorian Pieracci replaced him.

Despite the wet conditions, which made for some sloppy handling from both sides, the Bears were able to touch down five times, the first of which occurred when Ryan Donnelly took a crash ball off Robert Weedon and sidestepped a couple of Chico State defenders to go over the line.

The Wildcats answered back with a penalty kick, but it was not long before fellow center Chris Gurecki took his own crash ball off Weedon to score one between the posts. With Blair's conversion the score was 14-3 at the intermission.

Just minutes into the second half, Chico mishandled the ball at the back of the scrum on its own line. Ryan Donnelly pounced on the loose ball to score his second. Chico State answered back with its own try and conversion, to bring its tally to 10.

Weedon notched one for himself off a Cal scrum on the left-hand side. Ten minutes later Gurecki went over for his second from an attacking lineout close in, leaving the final score Cal 33, Chico State 10.

Head coach Jack Clark commented, "I am pleased we earned a victory, it's not a performance that would worry the top teams in the competition, but it's who we are."

The varsity will host Canadian rival the University of British Columbia at Witter Field, this Saturday, Feb. 21, at 1 p.m.

The Team:

15. Blair, 14. Wilson, 13. Gurecki, 12. Donnelly, 11. Pieracci, 10. Weedon, (Castles, 67), 9. Johnson, 8. Lindsey, 7. Welsh, (Sehr, 70) 6. Burruel, (Boggs, 45), 5. Stanfill, 4. Tausend, 3. Walker, (McDivitt, 60), 2. Vontz, (Captain), 1. Dorosti

The Scoring:

Trys:

Donnelly (2), Gurecki (2), Weedon

Cons:

Blair (4)

The Cal varsity reserve grade beat the Chico State seconds, 40-0.