After the spring game, I headed over to the rugby game to see Cal take on Central Washington University in the national semi-finals. On the line was a trip to Salt Lake City to take on BYU for the national title.
This season has been a bit of a rough season for Cal. By that, I mean that Cal has had 2 losses. There have been years where Cal had zero losses, so two is a lot. Plus, both of the losses have been blowouts, which was stunning. Injuries have had a large effect on the team and were, most likely, the cause of those two losses. Most people would view a 18-2 season as a great season, but it's definitely been different from normal.
Saturday was back to normal, though. Cal was all over CWU. They were up 14-0 before you could even blink. Even though there was a bit of sloppy play (mostly dropped passes), Cal just was faster, stronger, and better organized than CWU. It was 48-7 at half and the second half was meaningless.
One aspect of the game that really stood out to me was the kicking game. Not only did Cal make all of its points kicks in the first half (many at tough angles), they were making great calls with the punt kicks. They used the punt kicks to get great field position against CWU and even scored a try off of a kick. There was one try where a Cal player literally kicked the ball forward to another Cal player who was standing in the end zone. He fell onto the ball and there you go, 5 points!
The defense was stout, of course. This was put in stark relief at halftime when Cal had a staunch goal line stand. CWU was knocking on the door for a substantial period of time, but Cal never let them in the door. Great stuff.
The atmosphere was great. The fans there were really into the game and when Coach Clark started taking out senior players (for the last time at Witter) at the tail end of the game, everybody gave them ovations. A great way to end another undefeated season at Witter (the two losses were on the road).
Check out the photos in the gallery above. If you made it out to the game, feel free to post your photos in the comment thread. Go Bears! Beat The Cougars!