Feb. 28, 2009

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. - The Golden Bears defeated New York Athletic Club, 27-19, at Tradewinds Park Saturday night, outscoring Winged Foot by nine in the second half to win the meeting of collegiate and Rugby Super League champions.

NYAC took an early lead on a penalty kick at the outset of the match before California senior flyhalf Keegan Engelbrecht booted two penalties to give the Bears a 6-3 advantage. The lead changed hands just one minute later with a converted try by Winged Foot but Engelbrecht hit his third straight penalty to trim the deficit to one point at halftime.

Cal grabbed the lead back with Engelbrecht's fourth penalty goal followed by a Derek Asbun try against the head on an AC five-meter scrum that increased the advantage to seven, but the Bears could not shake their opponent, as Winged Foot's made penalty in the 67th minute brought NYAC back to within one point at 20-19.

Five minutes later, wing Ryan Taylor scored a try to widen the gap for Cal, with Engelbrecht's conversion rounding out the scoring as the Bears held firm.

"When we play a Super League champion, it's a pretty big honor and something we really look forward to," said Engelbrecht, who was 5-for-5 on penalties. "We weren't perfect by any means, that's for sure. But we kept our noses in it and stuck to it."

Saturday marked the third occasion on which the Bears have faced the reigning RSL champion. In 2006, Cal hosted NYAC when it visited Witter Rugby Field having won the 2005 RSL title. The Bears handed Winged Foot a narrow 33-27 defeat.

The following season, Old Mission Beach Athletic Club arrived as the '06 RSL champs and returned the favor, beating Cal in Berkeley, 36-30. In 2008 the Bears won their rematch over OMBAC in San Diego, 37-15, after proving unsuccessful at arranging a fixture with '07 RSL champ Belmont Shore.

Saturday's meeting was champ vs. champ once more, as NYAC came away with the '07 RSL title last May with its 31-28, sudden-death overtime win over Belmont Shore, the same month Cal won its 24th team title with a 59-7 win over BYU.

"We got what we were looking for: a hard, cross-country match against a really good side," said head coach Jack Clark. "They're a class act and we're happy to have these lessons under our belt."

Earlier in the day, the Bears dispatched the Florida College All-Stars by the score of 69-17.

Cal (21-0) will leave Florida with one more match under belt, with an early wakeup call to face the Eastern Penn College Reps at 10 a.m. ET Sunday.

A week of training back in Berkeley will precede the Bears' return to the road for a Sat., March 7, meeting with UC Santa Cruz at 1 p.m. before hosting their final regular-season home matches Wed., March 11, at 6:30 p.m. vs. Sacramento State and Sat., March 14, at 1 p.m. vs. UC Davis.

The remainder of Cal's regular-season schedule includes a visit to Saint Mary's Sat., March 21, at 1 p.m; the latter half of the "World Cup" series at British Columbia Thurs., March 26, at 2:30 p.m.; and a final stop at Central Washington Sat., March 28, at noon before the team shifts into "April Drive" in advance of hosting half of the Rounds of 16 and 8 April 17-19 at Witter Rugby Field.

The Scoring Timeline vs. New York Athletic Club:

01:00 NYAC 3

05:00 Keegan Engelbrecht 3

17:00 Keegan Engelbrecht 3

18:00 NYAC 5, 2

25:00 Keegan Engelbrecht 3

Halftime: NYAC 10, California 9

41:00 Keegan Engelbrecht 3

45:00 Derek Asbun 5

50:00 NYAC 3

53:00 NYAC 3

59:00 Keegan Engelbrecht 3

67:00 NYAC 3

73:00 Ryan Taylor 5, Keegan Engelbrecht 2

Final Score: California 27, NYAC 19

The Team vs. New York Athletic Club:

15. Bailes, 14. Muhn, 13. Hawley, 12. Scully (Stevens @ 81:00), 11. Taylor, 10. Engelbrecht ©, 9. Mase, 1. Wilhelmy, 2. Biller, 3. Besser, 4. Jesseman (Snellgrove @ 56:00), 5. Fry, 6. Kidd, 7. Rooke, 8. Asbun (Balough @ 56:00, Law @ 80:00)

The Scoring Timeline vs. Florida College All-Stars:

01:00 Nicholas Maloney 5, Sean Gallinger 2

03:00 Florida College All-Stars 5

12:00 Jim Barrett 5, Sean Gallinger 2

16:00 Austin Pugh 5

20:00 Nicholas Maloney 5, Sean Gallinger 2

25:00 Florida College All-Stars 5, 2

28:00 Logan Howard 5

35:00 Florida College All-Stars 5

Halftime: California 31, Florida College All-Stars 17

41:00 Tom Sproats 5, Sean Gallinger 2

49:00 Nicholas Maloney 5, Sean Gallinger 2

57:00 Sean Gallinger 5

64:00 Alex Leach 5, Mark Richter 2

70:00 Tom Sproats 5, Mark Richter 2

78:00 Drew Hyjer 5

Final Score: California 69, Florida College All-Stars 17

The Team vs. Florida College All-Stars

15. Maloney, 14. Mascheroni, 13. Howard, 12. Pugh, 11. Harris (Leach @ 38:00), 10. Gallinger © (Richter @ 61:00), 9. Ring (Caravelli @ 61:00), 1. Estrella, 2. N. Barrett (G. Hyjer @ 61:00), 3. J. Barrett (Strack @ 61:00), 4. Casias, 5. D. Hyjer, 6. Sproats, 7. Burrows, 8. D. Barrett (Prickett @ 71:00)