Stanford Clinches Playoff Berth with Victory over Sac. St.

The Stanford Cardinal defeated the Sacramento State Hornets 31-19.  With the win, Stanford locked up fifth place in the NorCal League thereby securing a place in the Pacific Coast section of the National Collegiate Rugby Championship Tournament.

                With a place in the playoffs on the line, Stanford showed visible signs of nervousness in the early minutes.  The resulting poor play put the Cardinal in a 7-0 hole after a break the Hornets’ inside center and repeated penalties put Sac. St. in position to drive the ball over (Sac. St. #15 good on conversion).  Stanford responded in the ensuing minutes and began to play their way into the game.  The Cardinal began to control possession and territory and closed the deficit to 7-3 after scrumhalf Brad Bachelder (2008) converted a Sac. St. penalty from about 30 meters out into three points.  After several more minutes of sloppy play, Stanford took the lead when repeated inside runs and pick-and-go’s by the forwards opened up a hole that flyhalf John Clark (2008) exploited for the go-ahead try (Bachelder good on conversion).

                Playing with the lead and growing confidence, Stanford began to play a brand of scintillating rugby.  Exploiting space out wide from within 30 meters of their own goal line, Stanford moved it wide to leftwing Jon Hofius (2008) who took the ball down within the Sac. St. 22m line.  Though the Cardinal lost the ball before converting the try, they quickly stole a Sac. St. lineout and flanker Brennan Corbett (2008) battled his way through what appeared to be the entire Hornets’ forward pack for the try (Bachelder good on conversion) and a 17-7 lead.  Moments before half, Bachelder took a quick tap off a penalty and moved the ball to Corbett who broke the gain line putting the Hornets on the back foot.  The Cardinal were able to exploit this penetration by moving the ball wide through the hands to rightwing Riley English (2010) who beat his opposite to the outside to score a brilliant try (Bachelder good on conversion) giving the Cardinal a 24-7 halftime lead.

                Stanford opened the second half in much the same fashion as they ended the first.  The Cardinal received a deep kickoff and moved it wide quickly.  Inside center Josiah Hall then broke through the Hornets’ defensive line and linked up with English on the outside.  With Sac. St. on its heels, Stanford used repeated quick pick-and-go’s to gain territory.  This dynamic play put the Cardinal up 31-7 after captain Pat Danahy (Co-Terminal MA 2008) broke through on a pick-and-go and offloaded to Corbett who scored under the posts.

                Unfortunately, the Cardinal could not maintain their high level of play and were frustrated for the rest of a very sloppy second half marred by penalties.  The Hornets scored two tries in the remaining time.  The first came off repeated Stanford penalties and a slow reaction to a free kick awarded to the Hornets off a 5m scrum (#15 good on conversion).  The final try of the game again came off Sac. St. was awarded numerous penalties (#15 no good on conversion) and brought the final score to 31-19.  While Stanford was happy to clinch a playoff berth and with about 30 minutes of its performance, it knows it must more consistent play throughout the game.