Feb. 21, 2007

BERKELEY - California was truly tested for the first time in 2007 on Wednesday and the Golden Bears responded well, erasing a 12-8 halftime deficit with a 24-point second half to come away with a 32-17 victory in the first leg of the annual "Word Cup" series against the University of British Columbia.

The Bears will take their 15-point margin of victory into the rematch with the Thunderbirds on March 28 in Vancouver, where the series will be decided on aggregate point totals.

Cal's meeting with its longtime rival on Witter Rugby Field may have caused a few butterflies to flutter in the Bears' guts as the match got underway in cloudy, breezy conditions. The Bears stumbled out of the gate, allowing UBC to score two early tries to claim a 12-0 lead by the 26th minute. David Poettcker missed a 27-meter penalty attempt and the Bears lost several key possessions as they struggled to break into the scoring column.

Junior wing Jason Lee willed his way into the right corner to get Cal going with its first try in minute 33. A yellow card against UBC as the first half ended gave the Bears a man advantage, and Cal capitalized with a Poettcker penalty kick to end the first half followed by a Rikus Pretorius try right after halftime, giving the Bears a 13-12 lead.

Cal clamped down on the fringe and began stringing together multiple phases as Louis Stanfill powered over for a try to give the Bears an eight-point lead. Having lost the cup in 2006 by aggregate points despite splitting the two contests, the Bears stayed on the gas to widen their lead, with captain Chase Brogan bulling across for another try 10 minutes later. Chris Biller took a feed from Pat Castles to score Cal's last try with five minutes to play, and UBC dotted down as time expired to shave five points off Cal's margin of victory.

"Not being able to pass, catch or kick, we had to chase the game in the first half," said head coach Jack Clark. "We were much better in the second 40, right up until conceding that try at full time. All in all, it was a lesson-rich affair which will help us down the road."

"It was sloppy, uncontrolled play, a lot of turnovers and dropped balls," said junior prop Sean Wilhelmy of Cal's first-half performance. "Once we took control of the ball and handled it a bit better, it came around in the second half. We had to put a lot of forwards into the rucks to get the ball out to our backs."

The Thunderbirds plan to be ready for their next battle against Cal in Vancouver. "We played pretty well today for about 20 minutes, and then we went on the defensive mode," said UBC head coach Spence McTavish. "We didn't put the numbers in to try and win the ball. If you don't have the ball, you can never win the game. Some of our skill was a little shaky. It puts us in a hole, but we've dug out of that hole before."

Now 15-0, Cal travels to UC Davis for a match on Saturday before returning home to host a doubleheader on March 3 against Sacramento State and Old Mission Beach Athletic Club, the Rugby Super League champion.

The Scoring Timeline vs. UBC:

07:00 UBC 5, 2

26:00 UBC 5

33:00 Jason Lee 5

40:00 David Poettcker 3

Half Time: UBC 12, California 8

41:00 Rikus Pretorius 5

54:00 Louis Stanfill 5, David Poettcker 2

63:00 Chase Brogan 5, Chris Gurecki 2

75:00 Chris Biller 5

80:00 UBC 5

Final Score: California 32, UBC 17

The Team vs. UBC:

15. Poettcker (Gurecki @ 54:00), 14. Lee, 13. Brogan ©, 12. Golding (D. Watson @ 69:00), 11. Harris (Kidd @ 54:00), 10. Castles, 9. Wright, 1. Wilhelmy, 2. Biller, 3. Kroll (J. Barrett @ 69:00), 4. Fry, 5. Cross (Jesseman @ 71:00), 6. Welch, 7. Pretorius, 8. Stanfill