April 16, 2005

BERKELEY - The Cal Varsity Rugby team defeated the Minnesota Golden Gophers 71-17 Saturday before a sun drenched capacity crowd at Witter Rugby Field to advance to the round of eight. Cal will face Tennessee, who was victorious in the earlier match dispatching Dartmouth in a hard fought match, 35-25.

Captain on the day, James Sehr led a mixed side that featured 8 underclassmen; 6 true freshman and 2 sophomores. Adding some veteran leadership to the side, were regular first teamers All-American Prop Cyrus Dorosti and Flyhalf Rob Weedon.

James Sehr, Rob Weedon and freshman Jason Lee all touched down twice in the Bear's 10 try haul. Additionally sophomore Chris Gurecki, along with first years Jason Kidd, Paul Jesseman and Ron Yokubaitis also went over with Gurecki and Yokubaitis combining for 7 conversions.

Cyrus Dorosti led the forwards with some powerful play in the loose, as a unit the pack made things very hard on Minnesota at the line of touch, for at least 2 of Cal's tries came from defensive pressure. In the backline Rob Weedon launched some decisive attacks that allowed Chris Gurecki to slash and carve his way through the Minnesota defense.

The match opened with Jason Lee crossing the Minnesota line just moments from the opening whistle but the Gophers would not roll over so easily as it would take Cal the better half of 40 minutes to begin to fire on all cylinders. Rob Weedon scored his second try in the 39th minute from a nice dummy switch and then Lee crossed over from a scrum center to leave the score at the half Cal 31, Minnesota 0.

After some words from the coaching staff the Bears came out with renewed vigor. Scott Kidd sprinted down and caught the opening kick off and in the next phase Rob Weedon created a gap for Chris Gurecki to run through and touch down. Minnesota answered back with a try of their own from a mishandled kick. The second half ended with two Cal tries both the result of defensive pressure. Logan Howard chased down a bad Minnesota pass for a try and then Ron Yokubaitis scored from a stolen lineout at the goal line. Leaving the final Cal 71, Minnesota 17.

Tomorrow Dartmouth will face Minnesota in the Consolation match at 12:00PM and the Bears will face Tennessee in the Championship match at 2:00PM.

In other Round of 16 action, BYU will play Army in the Pool C Championship. BYU defeated Penn State 44-35 and Army dispatched Clemson 35-18. In the Pool B Championship Utah will face tournament host Santa Barbara. Utah thrashed Purdue 65-0 and Santa Barbara shut out Wyoming 21-0. Finally in Pool D Ohio State advances to face Navy in the final. The Buckeyes beat St. Mary's College 21-10 and Navy turned over Air Force 19-12.

The champion of each pool of will advance to the Final Four, to be held Friday and Saturday, April 29-30 at Stanford University. For more information visit the USA Rugby website at www.usarugby.org.

The Scoring Timeline:

2:00 Jason Lee 5

22:00 James Sehr 5, Chris Gurecki 2

32:00 Rob Weedon 5, Chris Gurecki 2

39:00 Rob Weedon 5

40:00 Jason Lee 5, Chris Gurecki 2

Halftime Score: 31-0

41:00 Chris Gurecki 5, Chris Gurecki 2

43:00 Minnesota 5, 2

52:00 James Sehr 5

58:00 Minnesota 3

60:00 Scott Kidd 5, Chris Gurecki 2

66:00 Minnesota 5, 2

70:00 Paul Jesseman 5, Ron Yokubaitis 2

72:00 Logan Howard 5, Ron Yokubaitis 2

79:00 Ron Yokubaitis 5, Ron Yokubaitis 2

Final Score: 71-17

The Team:

15. O'Brien, (Pieracci, 71:00), 14. Lee, 13. Gurecki, (Pat King, 62:00), 12. Yokubaitis, 11. Kidd, 10. Weedon, (Logan Howard, 62:00) 9. B.Wright, 1. Kloberdanz, 2. Biller, 3. Dorosti, (Kevin Kroll, 62:00) 4. Jones, (LaBounty, 44:00), 5. Jesseman, 6. Grinter, (Tedesco 11:00-17:00, 53:00), 7. Sehr ©, 8. Biestman