Stanford 1^st XV v. St. Mary’s 1^st XV

 The Cardinal dropped a hard-fought game to the St. Mary’s Gaels 22-15.  The Gaels controlled the game early on and jumped on the board first with a try from their scrumhalf (conversion no good).  With the lead, St. Mary’s continued to win the field position battle, but stout goal line defense from Stanford kept the score at 5-0 until Stanford scrumhalf Brad Bachelder (2008) took a quick tap and sliced through the St. Mary’s defense to knot the game at 5-5 (Bachelder conversion no good).  The game continued to go back and forth until the St. Mary’s #6 drove over the line after Stanford conceded a penalty within 10 meters of their goal line.  The Cardinal tried to respond with points before half, but Bachelder’s attempted penalty kick from just inside the Gaels’ 10m line fell short and the score stood at 10-5 for St. Mary’s at half.

                The Gaels scored early in the second half when Stanford failed to realign on defense after a clearance kick and the St. Mary’s inside center finished a long try highlighted by crisp passing that prevented Stanford from slowing the ball down (conversion good).  The Cardinal responded with points of their own when Bachelder converted a penalty kick to bring the score to 17-8.  After this quick scoring to begin the half, both teams traded unconverted opportunities until St. Mary’s finally broke through with less than three minutes to go when a St. Mary’s player broke through the Stanford weak side defense to extend the lead to 22-8 (conversion no good) and seal the victory.  Stanford was able to gain a bonus point in the waning moments of the game when they drove the ball deep into St. Mary’s territory.  After winning a penalty and mauling to the goal line off the ensuing lineout, Bachelder took it in himself and converted to try to bring Stanford within seven points of the Gaels at 22-15.