March 14, 2006

BERKELEY - Another match, another lineup and another victory for Cal Rugby on Tuesday night, as the Golden Bears blanked UC Santa Cruz, 29-0, under the lights at Witter Rugby Field.

Unfortunately for Cal, Tuesday's win was another uneven performance as well. Santa Cruz spent a good deal of the first half in the Bears' half of the pitch, then dueled Cal to a scoreless second stanza until hooker Pat King scored with a minute to play to avoid a second-half donut.

"It felt great to get running," said King, whose two tries opened and closed the scoring for Cal, "but we did a lot of things that were sloppy as a team. We had a really inexperienced front row -- with me playing hooker for the first time this year, and John Kuhns had never played prop -- but we made up for it in other areas, hit some rucks pretty well and ran the ball physically in the forwards."

The first XV was yet another iteration of ruggers, the third shuffle in 10 days for the Bears, who assembled to keep Cal unbeaten going into the Cal Invitational this weekend.

Among those called to lace them up for kickoff was flyhalf Keegan Engelbrecht, whose steady play in midfield was bittersweet solace since the freshman from Flower Mound, Texas, has to have surgery on an injured shoulder and played his first and final match of the season tonight.

"To train for six, eight months and then I get hurt -- it's the nature of the beast, I guess," said Engelbrecht, whose latest injury came immediately after rehabbing an injured ankle that had kept him off the field all season. "This was it, one shot. Figured I'd give it a go."

Another bright spot on Tuesday was at inside center, where Cody Stevens returned after missing all of 2005 and most of 2006 with injury. His 68 minutes of dynamic explosiveness in midfield drew appreciation from teammates and spectators.

The students from Santa Cruz were fired up for the chance to play Cal, and UCSC head coach Robbie Bellue, a 1992-93 alumnus of Cal Rugby, knew going in that his "boys were ready. A lot of them are from the Bay Area, so they don't need me to tell them the history of what Cal Rugby has done for the US."

Santa Cruz summoned a little more hustle and desire to come away with a vast improvement over the 86-0 blowout it suffered last year. "We brought it and left it on the field," coach Bellue said. "Technically and tactically we could have done better, but they exploited our weaknesses and that's what it's all about."

The 10th Annual Cal Invitational, this weekend at Witter Rugby Field, features Colorado, New Mexico and Cal Poly - SLO. Matches begin at noon on Saturday with New Mexico vs. Cal Poly, followed at 2 p.m. by the Bears against the Buffaloes. The championship, Sunday at 2 p.m., will be preceded by the consolation game at noon.

The Scoring Timeline vs. UC Santa Cruz:

06:00 Pat King 5

25:00 Dustin Watson 5, Keegan Engelbrecht 2

28:00 Colin Hawley 5

40:00 Jason Lee 5, Keegan Engelbrecht 2

Half Time: California 24, UC Santa Cruz 0

79:00 Pat King 5

Final Score: California 29, UC Santa Cruz 0

The Team vs. UC Santa Cruz:

15. Lee (N Yancey @ 57:00), 14. Watson, 13. Hawley (Howard @ 75:00), 12. Stevens (Busch @ 68:00), 11. Lopez, 10. Engelbrecht, 9. L Yancey, 1. Kuhns, 2. King, 3. Barrett, 4. Vaught (J Smith @ 68:00), 5. Jesseman, 6. Strong, 7. Reed, 8. Balough