Men's rugby enjoys stellar start to the 2024-25 season
VALLEJO, Calif. - This past weekend, the men's rugby team traveled to Palo Alto for the preseason 10s rugby tournament. Nine Keelhaulers played their first official minutes in the Cal Maritime jersey; the event was a great introduction to the level of competition the team will face in conference play this spring.
Tens rugby is similar to sevens rugby in that there are less players on the field and the halves are shorter to play more games in a tournament-style event. Stanford was an amazing hosts and our players enjoyed an incredible day of rugby in front of friends and family.
In CSUM's first game versus Santa Cruz, the players demonstrated a stingy defense against a strong Banana Slug attack. The players held the line and turned three turnovers into tries by Jasper Burgard, Zion Jerge, and Kyle Matsutaka to earn a 15-5 win.
The second match saw the Cal Maritime face a rebuilding San Francisco State team. Although the Gators played with a lot of heart and effort, the Keelhaulers won the match, 29-0.
Roman Portilla led the way with two tries, Jerge scored his second try of the day and forwards Larry Ward and London Neal each scored tries of their own. Wilson Urkov also slotted to conversion kicks to complete the scoring for Cal Maritime.
In what was called the match of the tournament, the Keelhaulers faced Cal Poly in the third and final game of the tournament.
The match would be a tough test for any team: Cal Maritime's players, bolstered by amazing fan support, pushed the Mustangs to take a 14-12 lead with less than a minute remaining in the game.
Both teams attacked with intense ferocity and played almost two minutes past regulation time, and in the final plays of the game, the Mustangs found a small break in Cal Maritime's defense and ran in a try to take the game, 17-14.
The men's team will have a couple of weeks to build on this success to face UC Santa Cruz at home on December 7th.
The women's team will head to Palo Alto this weekend to compete in the West Coast Conference Sevens Championship tournament to face Cal and St. Mary's in pool play to earn the best possible seeding for the ensuing playoff rounds.