Sept. 15, 2012

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COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Golden Bears ran in seven tries, four by Jake Anderson and two by Seamus Kelly, while shutting down Navy's offense to win the Buckeye 7s Invitational, 45-0, Saturday at Lincoln Tower Park.

Any questions about Cal's freshness coming into the morning final following a late finish to Friday's action were answered emphatically against the Midshipmen, as the Bears (4-0) started strong and spent most of the match inside Navy (1-3) territory.

"Definitely happy with the start to the season, especially the way we came out on day two," said Kelly. The senior captain called the idea of pairing rugby 7s with fall football Saturdays "a brilliant design to get rugby more exposure with one of the biggest sporting events in the country."

Kelly scored both his tries in the first half, the second off a feed from Paul Bosco following a turnover at the Middies 22, while Anderson scored the first of his quartet and sophomore Eakalfi Okusi tackled Navy's talented Seamus Siefring into touch at the halftime horn to end what proved to be the academy's biggest threat of the contest.

"Of course there are areas to improve but the team came out really well and set me up for some walk-in tries," said Anderson, who rattled off his next three scores in succession during the second frame. Josh Tucker rounded out the try-scoring for Cal and freshman Russell Webb contributed 10 points to the effort on 5-for-7 conversion kicking.

"Yesterday we started off as individuals but you could see as we kept playing that we came together as a team," said Webb, who ended the weekend with a try and a 61 percent conversion rate (8-of-13). "I was definitely nervous putting on the Cal jersey for the first time, especially with the crowd we had, which was pretty impressive."

Head coach Jack Clark called the Buckeye 7s "a real solid competition overall for us. We didn't hit on all cylinders Friday, but we were good at times."

Following the final, which brought his team's combined totals in the tournament to 113 points scored and only 15 surrendered, Clark said, "I thought we played our best 7s today, which is a positive in tournament play."

The Rugby Bears return to Berkeley to begin preparations for their next competition at the Cal Poly 7s, held in Arroyo Grande, Calif., on Saturday, October 6.

The Scoring Timeline vs. Navy

03:00 Seamus Kelly 5

05:00 Jake Anderson 5, Russell Webb 2

08:00 Seamus Kelly 5, Russell Webb 2

Halftime: California 19, Navy 0

11:00 Jake Anderson 5, Russell Webb 2

13:00 Jake Anderson 5, Russell Webb 2

15:00 Jake Anderson 5, Russell Webb 2

18:00 Josh Tucker 5

Final Score: California 45, Navy 0

The Team vs. Navy

1. Okusi, 2. Battaglia, 3. Kelly, 4. Webb, 5. Bosco, 6. Anderson, 7. Tucker
Replacements: Coquillard, Frisinger, Boyer, O'Beirne, Todd

Saturday Results
Notre Dame 19, Ohio State 12
California 45, Navy 0