BY LARRY FREITAS
Santa Clara University made the trip over Highway 17 to Santa Cruz to take on the Banana Slugs this past Saturday, in a Division 2 West Coast conference clash. UCSC had taken their first game of the season in November, beating Cal State Monterey Bay; Santa Cruz had beaten St. Mary’s before Thanksgiving, but then lost in early December to Nevada Reno.
UC Santa Cruz was decked out in new gold and navy blue kit. The weather was dry, and the field was in fairly good condition, as a few days before it had rained and hailed in the Monterey Bay Area, as Northern California was belted by a strong cold front out of the north. Loma Prieta, the highest peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains, still sported some snow from that storm, which could be seen from the pitch in the distance beyond the east end goal posts. For this day the weather was perfect for rugby football, with not a breath of wind and sun overhead, partially screened by thin clouds.
UCSC kicked off, Santa Clara defending the east end of the field. A pattern to the first half quickly developed: Santa Clara turned over the ball with a penalty, and UCSC gained possession, and would keep the ball for long stretches of play. Santa Clara’s defense held firm, and whenever a breakaway runner got through, Bronco fullback Courtney Davis made tackles to keep the home team from crossing the goal line.
Eventually, with ten minutes gone on the clock, UCSC made a handling error inside Santa Clara’s half, and then Santa Clara’s Sydney Lenoch was off and running for a long try, placing the ball under the posts for an easy conversion by flyhalf Maggie Avery. As the half wore on, there were two more long tries made by Santa Clara’s swift backs, Lenoch again at 22 minutes,, and Maya Hunt at 25, and thought the time of possession was highly in UCSC’s favor, they could only account for one score, an unconverted try that the Slug forwards manufactured, as the half ended with the visitors up 21-5.
Santa Clara scored quickly in the second half, as Courtney Davis, having moved from full back to center, crossed the line. A long period of play ensued before senior and captain Carly Fowler scored a try; she has moved to number 8, the position she played her fresher year. At that point in the match the floodgates opened up, and more Santa Clara scored followed, by Hunt, senior center Faith Harlan, forward Veronica Tilley, and the final try, with just minutes remaining, by Avery, converting her own try; she only missed one conversion all day, from a bad angle. Final score was 54-10.
Kyle Domingue, Santa Clara’s coach, finally has a team with plenty of subs on the bench. He told me over thirty had shown up for training before the season started, and he has twenty-six players on the roster, and a good mix of veteran senior players and sophomores. So far they haven’t had any injuries either. It could be that they will encounter Nevada Reno once again in the playoffs after the season ends in March.