Individual Game Recaps Aggies Continue to Win By Defeating Stanford 2/23/2008 Saturday February 23 UC Davis 33-Stanford 19 Two disappointing aspects of an otherwise great year thus far for the Davis men’s rugby team has been their play on the road and their inconsistency. Both of these were evident in their win over Stanford in Palo Alto. Davis came out a bit flat from the opening whistle, but scored the first try of the game when prop Collin Clark ran through three Stanford defenders before offloading to a teammate for an easy touch down. This try set Davis off on the right foot, but may have left the Aggies overconfident as they seemed to go into a daze. Stanford was able to score the next two tries not through amazing skill or speed but simple mistakes and missed tackles by the Aggies. The first try was the result of a long kick into the try zone by the Stanford fullback. Davis fullback Danny Nolan slipped, seemed to get a hand to the ball for the touch down but the ref awarded the Stanford player a try when he dove onto the ball quickly after. Stanford scored again minutes later when Davis missed a first up tackle in the midfield and the Cardinal fly-half was able to run in from 15 yards out, making the score 12-7. Davis showed another flash of its talent when eight-man Mark Miller took the ball after a line-out player, beat the first tackler, demolished the full-back who tried to stop him at the goal line and reached the try zone. Too often on the day however, these individual efforts were followed by inconsistent team play. Davis was able to score quickly to begin the second half and turn the momentum of the game around. Fly-half Julien Howsepian attacked the Stanford backs with a hard run. He seemed to be stopped feet from the try line but was pushed in with the help of some of his teammates who were quick to support. Howsepian and Nolan combined for the next try. Both players attacked the weak side, and Howsepian kicked a grubber into the try zone that Nolan got to quickly for the score. Davis continued to build the momentum when some tough tackles resulted in a Stanford turnover deep in the Stanford zone. Clark once again showed his strength by running over a defender and touching the ball down for the score. Here it seemed that Davis would take a stranglehold on the game and show who the better team was but instead took their foot off of the pedal. Turnovers and poor tackles allowed Stanford to move steadily down the field and score another try. The Aggies can be happy with the result, but not their overall performance as they believe they should have easily shredded this Stanford side. Davis (1-15) Collin Clark, Jacob Jacob Litinesky, Gus Brown, Jordan, Reid Robinson, Sam Shackleford, Johnny Volan, Mark Miller, John Parshall, Julien Howsepian, Tyler Harrison, Tom Warner, Chris Buck/Jake Mayers, Tarick Abu-Aly, Ross Warnloff, Danny Nolan TRIES: Warner, Miller, Howsepian, Nolan, Clark CONVERSIONS: Howsepian (4) UC Davis Men's Rugby Club 232 Activities and Recreation Center University of California, Davis 95616 Copyright 2006-2007, Julien Howsepian