Jan. 9, 2010

BERKELEY - Scoring a dozen tries in each half, the California Golden Bears marked the halfway point of their two-week training camp Saturday at Witter Rugby Field with a 152-0 win over Humboldt State to open the 2010 season. Fifteen different Bears found the try zone in front of a sizeable crowd prior to the start of the spring semester on campus.

The matchup between the Bears and the Division II Lumberjacks was a systems check that delivered on both teams' objectives.

All-America winger Blaine Scully caught Cal's opening kickoff and went the distance to start the match and ended with three tries. Scully's hat trick was echoed by three tries each from center Colin Hawley and sophomore fullback Anthony Lombardo.

While the Bears backs offered hard evidence that they are a dangerous group for the opposition, the Cal scrum occasionally found itself challenged by Humboldt State on a cool, overcast day in Strawberry Canyon.

Lumberjacks head coach Alex Lundberg said, "Our scrums did really well and turned a couple of balls over, which was better than I was expecting in that regard. If we can do certain things against Cal that are successful, we can build on that. We want that opportunity to play at Witter Rugby Field, and we had weaknesses that were exposed, but this will help us in our league games."

In between any hiccups in Cal's execution, the crowd was treated to a solid, 80-minute effort from the team to begin its 128th season.

"We wanted to control the controllables, and one of the things we focused on was effort," said flyhalf Keegan Engelbrecht. "We only have a few games at Witter Rugby Field this year and it's great to see people out here. We love playing on this field."

"We really appreciate these home games because there are so few of them this year," agreed co-captain Eric Fry. "After a long first week of camp, it's fun to get out and test our skills. There will be a lot of opportunities for a lot of players next weekend."

Cal next travels to the UCLA Tournament, where the Bears will play seven matches in the two-day competition also known as the Dennis Storer Classic. An eighth match on Sunday against Claremont Colleges at UCLA will give the entire roster a chance to compete.

The Bears will also travel to the state capitol to take on Sacramento State in the opener of local play and take another trip to Santa Clara University before returning to Witter Rugby Field to play Stanford for the Scrum Axe on Jan. 30.

Scoring Timeline:

01:00 Blaine Scully 5, Keegan Engelbrecht 2

07:00 Blaine Scully 5, Keegan Engelbrecht 2

12:00 James Bailes 5

16:00 Dustin Muhn 5

19:00 Danny Barrett 5, Keegan Engelbrecht 2

23:00 Colin Hawley 5

27:00 Colin Hawley 5, Keegan Engelbrecht 2

30:00 Dustin Muhn 5

33:00 Jason Law 5, Keegan Engelbrecht 2

36:00 Colin Hawley 5, Keegan Engelbrecht 2

38:00 Sean Gallinger 5, Keegan Engelbrecht 2

40:00 Blaine Scully 5

Halftime: California 74, Humboldt State 0

41:00 Nicholas Maloney 5, Mark Richter 2

44:00 Mark Richter 5, 2

49:00 Connor Ring 5, Mark Richter 2

51:00 Anthony Lombardo 5, Mark Richter 2

58:00 Anthony Lombardo 5, Mark Richter 2

62:00 Jared Braun 5, Mark Richter 2

65:00 Josh Prickett 5, Mark Richter 2

68:00 Adam Anderson 5, Alex Aronson 2

73:00 Eric Strack 5

75:00 Anthony Lombardo 5

79:00 Brendan Daly 5

80:00 Connor Ring 5, Alex Aronson 2

Final Score: California 152, Humboldt State 0

The Team vs. Humboldt State:

15. Bailes (Lombardo @ 41:00), 14. Muhn (Maloney @ 41:00, Anderson @ 67:00), 13. Hawley (Kelly @ 41:00), 12. Gallinger (Braun @ 41:00), 11. Scully (Tucker @ 41:00), 10. Engelbrecht (Richter @ 41:00, Aronson @ 67:00), 9. Mase (Ring @ 41:00), 1. Deterding (Cunnie @ 41:00), 2. N. Barrett (Kelley @ 41:00), 3. Besser (Strack @ 41:00), 4. Law (D. Hyjer @ 41:00), 5. Fry © (Daly @ 41:00), 6. D. Barrett (Witter @ 41:00), 7. Rooke (Fach @ 41:00), 8. Asbun (Prickett @ 41:00)