BERKELEY — A California lineup featuring eight freshmen in the starting XV ran in 16 tries Wednesday night to defeat Santa Clara University on Witter Rugby Field.
 
The Golden Bears certainly had good moments in their domination of the Broncos, limiting them to one penalty kick by Santa Clara flanker Chris Gerbino (1-for-3) in the fifth minute. Cal's wide margin of victory, however, was irrelevant to the players in their pursuit of continual improvement.
 
"There is no certain number of points we're trying to score, it's just a matter of building team chemistry and coming together when we get on the field," said Garrett Kay, who started in the all-freshman back row at No. 7. "There was some good, hard running out there, but it's about getting better, reducing the turnover count and playing sound rugby all around."
 
Added freshman Gavin Janis, who paired in the centers with fellow freshman Desi Streater, "We want to come out and play good, fluent rugby. We had a lot of turnovers and just needed to settle down and play our game."
 
Kay was one of five multi-try scorers, with a hat trick to match the trio of tries scored by winger Oliver Sharpe. Janis scored a brace, as did lock Louis Le Merle and wing Marcus Shankland. Flyhalf Elliot Webb finished with 20 points on 10 conversions (10-for-16).
 
Next up, the Rugby Bears travel to Canada for their Sunday, March 4 , visit to British Columbia, where Cal will send a traveling squad of primarily reserve players to the 1 p.m. match at Thunderbird Stadium.
 
The following weekend, the team returns home for the Cal Invitational on Saturday and Sunday, March 10-11, a two-day, four-team tournament that will feature Cal, UCLA, Army and Claremont Colleges and serve as the backdrop of the team's Homecoming Weekend, when the Bears welcome back former players and their families and celebrate anniversaries of past national championship teams.
 
The Scoring Timeline vs. Santa Clara
 
04:00 Oliver Sharpe 5, Elliot Webb 2
 
05:00 Santa Clara (Chris Gerbino) 3
 
10:00 Desi Streater 5
 
21:00 Louis Le Merle 5, Elliot Webb 2
 
28:00 Garrett Kay 5, Elliot Webb 2
 
31:00 Garrett Kay 5
 
38:00 Marcus Shankland 5, Elliot Webb 2
 
40: Brian Joyce 5, Elliot Webb 2
 
Halftime Score: California 45, Santa Clara 3
 
43:00 Gavin Janis 5
 
46:00 Hugo d'Auriol 5
 
53:00 Louis Le Merle 5, Elliot Webb 2
 
55:00 Oliver Sharpe 5
 
58:00 Marcus Shankland 5, Elliot Webb 2
 
67:00 Brian Joyce 5, Elliot Webb 2
 
70:00 Blake Richards-Smith 5, Elliot Webb 5
 
75:00 Oliver Sharpe 5, Elliot Webb 2
 
78:00 Garrett Kay 5, Elliot Webb 2
 
Final Score: California 100, Santa Clara 3
 
The Team vs. Santa Clara
 
15. H. d'Auriol, 14. Shankland, 13. Streater, 12. Janis, 11. Sharpe, 10. Webb, 9. T. d'Auriol, 1. Sekona (Taotua @ 40:00), 2. Joyce, 3. Douglas (Duvall @ 40:00), 4. Le Merle, 5. Warnock (Tuua-Burch), 6. Huynh, 7. Kay, 8. Richards-Smith