Individual Game Recaps Davis Beats Chico in Home Opener 1/12/2008 Davis Beats Chico in Home Opener Saturday January 12 The UC Davis Men’s Rugby Team beat Chico St. 18-13 on Saturday before a large home crowd to improve its record on the regular season to 2 - 0. Despite scoring the first two tries of the game, Davis was unable to put away a tough Chico side and late in the second half the victory was in jeopardy. It took a late try from rookie eight-man Johnny Volan and some gritty Aggie defense near the end to secure the win. The Aggies have found success this year by combining tough, intelligent play from their forwards with great speed on the outside from their backs. Chico however, did a great job of neutralizing breakdowns and making first up tackles so that the Aggie backs never got a chance to get to their usual running. The Aggie backs had to adjust to the sloppier style of play, and helped Davis score the first try of the match when fullback Danny Nolan kicked through a ball that had fallen to the deck, then was the first player to reach the ball in the try zone for the touch down. The second try of the game was scored when scrumhalf John Parshall went to the weak side with a pass directly to winger Brian Rozelle, in his return from injury, who dove over the line for the score. At this point it appeared that the Aggies would be able to continue the momentum. When the halftime whistle blew the score was 13-3 Aggies. Both flyhalf Julien Howsepian and his counterpart had scored penalty kicks to go along with the two Aggie tries which were both followed by missed conversions. A disappointing facet of the Aggies season has been a tendency to look flat for periods of action. This happened once again during the second half of this game. Davis was unable to take advantage of a yellow card given to Chico’s flyhalf and was actually outscored by Chico while having a one man advantage. Davis was able to respond however, by taking advantage of an overlap. Volan found the corner of the try zone untouched to put the Aggies up for good. The Aggie forward pack, missing former 8 man Mark Miller and trying out some players at new positions played hard all day but was challenged in scrums by the larger Chico pack. Still, the forwards won an important scrum at the end of the match in their own territory to seal the victory. Man of the Match goes to Johnny Volan and fellow rookie flanker Sam Shackleford for hard hits throughout the game. Davis (1-15) Colin Clark, Jacob Litinisky, Gus Brown, Levi Ryan, James Wessel, Robert Meeson, Sam Shackleford, Johnny Volan, John Parshall, Julien Howsepian, Tyler Harrison, Tom Warner, Jake Mayers, Brian Rozelle, Danny Nolan Tries: Nolan, Rozelle, Volan Conversions: Howsepian, 0-3 Penalty kicks: Howsepian, 1-1 UC Davis Men's Rugby Club 232 Activities and Recreation Center University of California, Davis 95616 Copyright 2006-2007, Julien Howsepian