The young ASU squad was no match for the size of the experienced Cal rugby team on Monday afternoon as the Golden Bears routed the Sun Devils 79-0.
Cal scored in the first three minutes and twice more in the first twenty minutes of the game.
From that point on, they were able to force their way down the field, repeatedly outrunning the ASU defense.
ASU came close to their own try line a couple times during the match, but Cal was able to stop them each time.
“Our defense was pretty good and we had some opportunities there in the first half where we should have scored and made silly decisions again,” head coach Gary Lane said.
Lane said the team is staying positive and knows where there needs to be improvement.
“We need to finish,” sophomore forward Dallas Sauer said. “We got down there, but we need to continue and drive it into the end zone, score the points.”
The Sun Devils struggled with lineouts again Monday despite looking good in practice, Lane said.
Sophomore inside center Matt Brennan said the set pieces, the scrums and lineouts, need the most work.
Sauer agreed and said, “We broke down. They would get the ball out and we’d have nobody there, we just weren’t covering the holes.”
After taking on the size of the Bears, Lane acknowledged the team needs to work on fitness and get into the gym more consistently, which they will do more of throughout the rest of the season and in the offseason.
ASU will take a day off to recover and be back preparing for the University of Arizona Wednesday, Lane said.
“We’ll work on our defensive structure, we’ll keep positive and go down to Tucson and do the best we can do,” Lane said.
The loss will give the team some motivation going into the next two weeks of practice and in their trip down south.
“It certainly wasn’t what we were looking for, but it will certainly give us a drive to go beat U of A,” Brennan said. “But we don’t really need a whole lot of motivation for those guys cause we gotta beat the rival.”
Reach the reporter at haley.stesiak@asu.edu or follow @haley_stesiak on Twitter.
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