Individual Game Recaps SMC Has Their Day Against Aggies 3/27/2008 Thursday March 27 Saint Mary’s College 40 UC Davis 24 When Davis and St. Mary’s met earlier in the season the Aggies won a nail-biting game by one score and was able to hold the St. Mary’s high powered offense to 19 total points and zero tries in the second half. This time, the St. Mary’s offense dictated the pace of the game and scored 35 points in the first half alone. By the time Davis was able to regain its composure St. Mary’s had built enough of a lead to hold on. Moments after the opening kickoff it appeared that Davis was poised to score off of a Saint Mary’s turnover deep in its own zone, yet the Aggies were turned over close to the try line and Saint Mary’s took full advantage of this. St. Mary’s ran off a few phases before breaking off a long run that brought them deep into Davis territory. SMC held possession well, and were eventually able to score after a Davis penalty. Perhaps this slow start hurt the Aggies, or perhaps they were not fully committed to the game knowing that SMC had already wrapped up second place in league due to bonus points, but Davis was not playing at its usual standards. First up tackling was terrible and SMC turned any small run into a long break using great offloads. SMC rattled off try after try in the first half, from backs and forwards alike. A telling play occurred when a SMC back broke through the line before offloading to a prop making a great support run, the big man then ran the last 10 meters untouched for the score. Davis was able to rebound somewhat before halftime by punching in two tries of their own. One occurred when fullback Danny Nolan beat his defender and made the pass to rookie wing Ross Warnloff who ran in for the score and the second thanks to a strong short run from fly-half Julien Howsepian. The score at halftime was 35-14. Davis was able to play up to its usual defensive standards in the second half, holding SMC to 5 points that occurred seconds before the whistle and thanks to a questionable call, but by this point it was too late to snatch a victory. Davis scored its first try of the second half when Howsepian opted to run off of a penalty rather than kick to touch and passed to center Tom Warner who gave the ball to second center Jake Mayers, who was able to break the line for a long gain before throwing an errant pass that wing Tyler Harrisson was able to scoop up from the ground and run in for the score. SMC slowed the tempo of the game down in order to preserve the lead while they had two players sent off with yellow cards. They effectively limited the normally exciting backline of Davis, who had very few long breaks to speak of. Davis was able to score again when a forward blocked a kick in the SMC try zone and Mayers got to the ball first for the touch down. Overall this was a disappointing but meaningless game for the Aggies, who will return to SMC in a week for the playoffs. UC Davis 1-15: Gus Brown, Jacob Litensky (Dan Hudes), Collin Clark, Reid Robinson, Levi Ryan (Jordan Bruno), Sam Shackelford, Johnny Volan, Mark Miller, Jon Parshall, Julien Howsepian, Tyler Harrison, Tom Warner, Christian Buck (Jake Mayers), Danny Nolan, Ross Warnloff. TRIES: Warnloff, Howsepian, Harrison, Mayers CONVERSIONS: Howsepian (2) UC Davis Men's Rugby Club 232 Activities and Recreation Center University of California, Davis 95616 Copyright 2006-2007, Julien Howsepian