Feb. 3, 2007

CHICO, CA - California stepped on the gas early in Saturday's contest against Chico State, scoring seven of its 11 tries in the first stanza for a 42-point halftime lead and an eventual 71-20 victory. Winger Scott Kidd and center Chase Brogan both dotted down twice and seven other Bears found the try zone. Fullback Chris Gurecki connected on 5-of-11 conversions and chipped through two penalty kicks.

After a couple of slow starts in recent matches, Cal made a point of establishing an attacking pace from the opening whistle against Chico. "We've been harping on it all week not to come out flat," said junior Chris Biller, who started at prop and shifted to hooker later in the match. "That was our emphasis and sure enough we came out with all cylinders firing."

Nine of Cal's tries were scored by backs, who kept the ball moving and improved their execution against the Wildcats, finishing most of their scoring opportunities. The backs, however, were quick to credit Cal's forwards for continually producing good possessions. "The forwards made it really easy. They got a lot of work done today," Brogan said. "We got a lot of clean ball really fast."

Bears flyhalf Pat Castles distributed it particularly well when the backs got the ball in hand. After he scored Cal's first try in the second minute, Castles made the final pass on four more first-half tries, then kicked into space to set up a Colin Hawley score in the second stanza. Said Brogan, "We worked all week on recognizing the gaps, and Pat did a really good job of recognizing and hitting them well."

Chico State maintained a high level of effort for the whole 80 minutes on Saturday. A couple of penalty kicks beyond 40 meters and two big scoring runs by inside center Mike Junk gave the Wildcats the biggest point production against Cal so far in 2007. "Historically Chico has been up for the challenge against Cal," said Wildcats head coach Beau McSwain, "We really come out play 80 minutes of rugby and do the best we can, and I think the boys did that today quite well."

In the reserve-grade match following the First XV, Cal defeated Chico State by the score of 97-7.

The Bears and Wildcats will play again tomorrow to end the season series, with Cal hoping to wind up the weekend with another win before continuing its road trip with a visit to The Farm to play Stanford next Friday, followed by a match at Sacramento State on Wednesday, Feb. 14. Cal returns to Witter Rugby Field to host Army on Saturday Feb. 17.

The Scoring Timeline vs. Chico State:

02:00 Pat Castles 5, Chris Gurecki 2

08:00 Jason Lee 5

13:00 Chase Brogan 5, Chris Gurecki 2

18:00 Gary Golding 5, Chris Gurecki 2

21:00 Chase Brogan 5, Chris Gurecki 2

25:00 Chico State 3

28:00 Scott Kidd 5

36:00 Ross Biestman 5, Chris Gurecki 2

Half Time: California 45, Chico State 3

46:00 Joe Welch 5

50:00 Colin Hawley 5

52:00 Chico State 3

57:00 Chico State 5, 2

60:00 Chris Gurecki 3

67:00 Scott Kidd 5

72:00 Chris Gurecki 3

77:00 Chico State 5, 2

79:00 Brendan Wright 5

Final Score: California 71, Chico State 20

The Team vs. Chico State:

15. Gurecki, 14. Lee, 13. Brogan © (Hawley @ 47:00), 12. Golding (D. Watson @ 55:00), 11. Kidd, 10. Castles, 9. Wright, 1. Wilhelmy, 2. Welch (Biller @ 47:00, Kuhns @ 68:00)), 3. Biller (Kroll @ 47:00), 4. Fry, 5. Cross, 6. Biestman, 7. Pretorius (Sehr @ 47:00), 8. Stanfill (Balough @ 47:00)