March 5, 2005

BERKELEY - The sun was shinning brightly on a beautiful 70 degree day in Strawberry Canyon as the Cal Varsity Rugby Team, now 13-0, defeated Stanford University 82-5 scoring 50 unanswered points in the second half, before a capacity crowd at Witter Rugby Field.

All American Hooker and Varsity Skipper, Tony Vontz was pleased, "The boys were determined to keep the Axe on campus and I am proud of their effort."

Today's line up featured Rob Weedon at fly half. His move from the centers gave Chase Brogan his first start of the year at Outside Center. In the pack, Miles Jones moves into the second row wearing the number 4 jersey.

Sophomore Rikus Pretorius led the Bears with 3 tries, while Brogan, Vontz, Lindsey and Weedon all touched down twice. Stanfill, Welch and Blair each crossed the line once and Blair knocked over 6 conversions.

Cal had the measure of their opponents throughout the match. A series of handling errors let several Cal tries go wanting. Andrew Blair unusually inconsistent on the day missed some conversions but ironically made the difficult ones.

The Bears enjoyed the lion share of possession as they scored roughly a point a minute. Anytime the Varsity forwards found themselves near the opposition line they drove over from lineouts as well as scrums. The Cal backs were able to expose gaps and overlaps in the Stanford defensive backline. Several Bear tries came from balls turned over as a result of solid defensive pressure.

Stanford did score a try from a line out in close but their possessions of the ball were so few and far between that they were never able to construct successful phases. When they did manage to scratch out some possession they kicked it away in the face of defensive pressure allowing the Cal pack to go to work at the line of touch.

Varsity Rugby Head Coach Jack Clark commented on his team's effort; "I thought we played with quite a bit of velocity, but lacked accuracy. Our opponent didn't put us under much pressure and therefore we should expect far more precision in our performance. But, the Axe stays in Berkeley, full stop."

The Scoring Timeline:

4.00 Vontz 5

6.00 Brogan 5

13.00 Blair 5, Blair 2

16.00 Vontz 5

25.00 Pretorius 5

29.00 Stanford 5

35.00 Lindsey 5

Half Time Score: California 32, Stanford 5

43.00 Lindsey 5

50.00 Pretorius 5, Blair 2

54.00 Brogan 5, Blair 2

57.00 Stanfill 5, Blair 2

64.00 Pretorius 5, Blair 2

68.00 Welch 5

73.00 Weedon 5, Blair 2

77.00 Weedon 5

Final Score: California 82, Stanford 5

The Team:

15. Blair,14. Hanks, 13. Brogan, 12. Donnelly, 11. Kidd, 10. Weedon, 9. DiGiorgio, 1. McClenahan, 2. Vontz©, 3. Dorosti 4. Jones, (Grinter, 67), 5. L. Stanfill, 6. Pretorius, 7. Welch, 8. Lindsey

In the reserve grade match, Cal defeated Stanford 103-0.