California Golden Bears Athletics
California
Utah
Bears Win Semi over Utah, 62-14
5/14/2011 12:00 PM | Rugby
May 14, 2011
Postseason Bracket | Live Scoring via Twitter
GLENDALE, Colo. - California beat Utah, 62-14, Saturday night in a national semifinal at Infinity Park. Seven Golden Bears scored a total of nine tries, with two apiece from co-captain Blaine Scully and inside center Sean Gallinger.
Flyhalf James Bailes connected on a penalty kick and hit 6-of-8 conversions, Alex Aronson converted his lone attempt and the Bears limited the Utes to one try in each half as Cal advanced to the national collegiate championship May 21 at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah.
"We knew that we had to do all the hard parts of the game, starting with the first scrum and not backing off until the final whistle," said prop James Besser. "Utah was no easy task and we did what we set out to do."
The Rugby Bears (26-0, 9-0) will face Brigham Young (15-0, 9-0), which defeated Arkansas State in the other semifinal, 36-15, in the 2011 national collegiate championship. The May 21 final, which starts at 7 p.m. MT, will be webcast live on ESPN3.com and telecast locally by tape delay on ESPNU at 7 a.m. PT on Sunday, May 22.
The semifinal began with Cal's kickoff, which captain Blaine Scully ran under and secured, leading to a Besser try in the second minute, which was followed by Bailes's penalty kick before Utes wing Taukave Lauti scored a try converted by his brother, Sione, to make the score 8-7 after 15 minutes.
Danny Barrett answered back with his try in the 18th minute but was sent to the sidelines with a yellow card four minutes later for a late tackle. Forced to play a man short, Cal responded by outscoring Utah 7-0 during his absence and added three more tries to exit the first half with a 43-7 lead.
In the second half, the Bears imposed their will on the Utes for two more tries from Sean Gallinger and Seamus Kelly while refusing to allow Utah back into the contest. A typical sequence had winger James McTurk racing to catch a Utah ball carrier short of the try line, causing a turnover that gave the ball back to the Bears.
"We got off to a fast start and in the end we're happy to get through and have the opportunity to finish the job," McTurk said.
Utah's Mote Houma scored his team's final try and Gallinger added his second try to finish the scoring in the 79th minute.
"Cal was very good in the contact area and distributing the ball," said Utah head coach Blake Burdette. "Credit to them, they stayed on task and got the job done. They're just so consistent and disciplined."
The Bears ended their evening satisfied with their effort but far from finished with their mission.
"We accomplished what we set out to do, which was to play a full 80 minutes at 100 percent, and I think that we achieved that. Our deal as a team is to try and get better every single game," said Jason Law, who played the entire match at lock.
"We still have one more week and BYU is going to once again be a great opponent for us," Law added. "We still have room for improvement."
Next Saturday will be the sixth straight meeting between the Bears and Cougars in the championship game.
The Scoring Timeline vs. Utah:
02:00 James Besser 5
08:00 James Bailes 3
15:00 Utah (Taukave Lauti) 5, (Sione Lauti) 2
18:00 Danny Barrett 5, James Bailes 2
25:00 Blaine Scully 5, James Bailes 2
28:00 Jason Law 5, James Bailes 2
36:00 Blaine Scully 5, James Bailes 2
39:00 James McTurk 5, James Bailes 2
Halftime: California 43, Utah 7
52:00 Sean Gallinger 5, James Bailes 2
58:00 Seamus Kelly 5, James Bailes 2
73:00 Utah (Mote Houma) 5, (Sione Lauti) 2
79:00 Sean Gallinger 5, Alex Aronson 2
Final Score: California 62, Utah 14
The Team vs. Utah:
15. Scully © (Anderson @ 64:00), 14. Muhn, 13. Kelly (Braun @ 59:00), 12. Gallinger, 11. McTurk, 10. Bailes (Aronson @ 70:00), 9. Ring (Bosco @ 54:00), 1. Deterding (Mohr @ 68:00), 2. N. Barrett, 3. Besser (Davenport @ 68:00), 4. Hyjer (D. Barrett @ 68:00), 5. Law, 6. R. Hodson, 7. Rooke, 8. D. Barrett (Daly @ 61:00)
