(Photos, Bubba Jones for St. Mary's. Mike Geib photo. Kellen Gordon for Central Washington, Numina Photo)

The College Premier Division Pacific Conference comes down to this one game.

All the other games have their importance. San Diego State can guarantee a winning record with a victory over Claremont Colleges this weekend. Cal Poly, with a victory over UC Davis, can put themselves in position to do the same.

All that is nice, but this weekend, all eyes turn to Ellensburg, Wash., where St. Mary’s plays Central Washington. If St. Mary’s wins with a bonus point, they can clinch 2^nd place and a spot in the Quarterfinals. A win of any sort will go a long way to ensuring 2^nd. If Central Washington wins Saturday, they will still have to take care of UCLA and San Diego State to be absolutely sure, but again, a win essentially puts them into the playoffs.

St. Mary’s is coming off their first loss of the season, 60-34 to Cal where they scored three tries in the last quarter of play, something that pleased Head Coach Tim O’Brien.

“I am happy they played all 80 minutes,” he said. “These kids can play. But I thought a couple of guys got caught in interesting spots and froze a little bit. That’s a tribute to Cal, but I think we should know better. And now you think Cal was a tough game, wait until you go up into the snake pit of Central Washington.”
CWU, meanwhile, has been able to rest. They sat some starters against UC Davis, and this past weekend they didn’t play.

“When we looked at the schedule, yes this was a game we knew would be important,” said CWU Head Coach Bob Ford. “Things have developed and we are where we want to be, which is putting us in a position to make the quarterfinals.”

Ford said he is especially pleased with how his side has developed over the course of the season. They were hit hard with yellow cards in their opening match for being offside on a regular basis. Then two weeks ago against Davis the referee complimented the Central players on their discipline.

“Defensive shape is where we’ve seen a lot of improvement,” said Ford. “Our defense is in good shape and we’re seeing good communication happening.”

The stats bear that out. Central’s points-against numbers are strong, and their scoreline against Cal of 44-14 might seem somewhat one-sided, and should be examined understanding that Cal played British Columbia two days before. But still, in Cal’s other 14 full-length, 1^st-side matches, they have averaged 77.5 points, and have scored fewer than 44 exactly once, in their first match against UBC (in the second they scored 54).

On the opposite side of the ball, that’s a part of the game that concerned O’Brien on Saturday.

“What we did different from other days was we were fractured on defense and Cal caught us on matchups; the speed of our defense was poor and the shape of our defense was poor.”

But St. Mary’s attacks from anywhere, and did so to the tune of 34 points and five tries against Cal. Consider that in 21 other 1^st-team matches Cal had surrendered 90 points and ten tries, and you’ll see the Gaels outperformed the average Cal opponent by a factor of eight to ten.

That quick-strike ability might match up well against the Wildcats.

“In attack we look to be a little careless with the ball,” warned CWU’s Ford. “And when you play St. Mary’s they will capitalize on that. For us to avoid their abilities in broken play we have to develop a smart, multi-phase attack that sets up some strike situations. We can’t take risks.”

St. Mary’s loves to take risks. The interior backline of Bubba Jones, Michael Haley and Tim Maupin can all slip through tackles and work well together. Scrumhalf Chad Clark is a threat to go at any time. And flanker Rob Carlson runs support and handles unexpected offloads as well as anyone in the country.

The Gaels can punch it up the gut, too, with the front row of Andrew Cook, Nick Wallace, and Matt Crawford leading the charge and No. 8 Matt Brophy all kinds of trouble in contact. Wallace is a monster on defense and has Eagle potential written all over him.

At Central the forwards do well to control the game.

Pat Farrell is a hardworking prop who gets a tone of stuff done, and he often partners with Jacob Bates, who can play hooker or flanker. The back row has really come along, with Patrick Blair a newcomer at flanker who has been exceptional, while Matt Murphy is powerful at No. 8. Perhaps their most key forwards are at second row, where Sean Wanigasekera has controlled the lineout and is, said Ford, one of the best jumpers in the country. His partner Cliff York has changed his body type and become the backbone of the pack.

Out wide, Central will depend a lot on how scrumhalf Chris Harriage links with either Ryan Hamilton or Aaron Lee at #10. Most interesting has been the play of Kellen Gordon, who switched from prop to inside center. Gordon spent some time in New Zealand and really took toe CWU’s 7s training, remaking himself into a fast, powerful back who can dish it out, and he sets up space for the likes of Tim Stanfill out wide. 

All in all it’s a great matchup. The two teams have different specialties and different weaknesses.

“It’s going to be a fantastic match,” enthused Ford. “Anyone who makes the trip out here is not going to be let down.”

And it’s cold and wet in Ellensburg as spring has not arrived in Washington yet thanks to La Nina.

“We played Cal [last weekend] and they are coming in fresh, so I would say the oddsmakers would have us as significant underdogs,” posited O’Brien. “You have to see St. Mary’s going into Central Washington as an underdog.”


Central Washington v. St. Mary’s common opponents: