UC Davis football routs North Dakota for team’s third win

The UC Davis football team took a beating at the hands of Weber State last weekend in Utah, but on Saturday night the Aggies dished out a little punishment of their own, doubling up the North Dakota Fighting Hawks, 48-24 en route to the team’s first conference win of the season.

The Aggies put on an offensive clinic from the outset, with the game once again dominated by the duo of sophomore quarterback Jake Maier and junior wideout Keelan Doss. The pair connected 11 times for a season high 199 yards through the air. Similar to previous outings, Maier wasted no time getting the ball in Doss’ capable hands; on the Aggies’ first play from scrimmage the two found each other on a 49 yard pass that ignited the crowd. The drive was later finished off by junior quarterback CJ Spencer, who punched the ball in the end zone on a designed run to put the Aggies up 7-0.

North Dakota responded with an explosive 81 yard run to even the game on its next possession. But the Aggies were poised to answer right back, scoring on the first play of their next drive. Maier delivered a strike to Doss, who managed to gain some impressive separation from his defender on a deep post route. Doss sprinted the 65 yards to the end zone on just his second reception to put the Aggies back on top 14-7.

“As soon as we called [the deep post route] I’m like, ‘I’m going to set [the defender] up with a little move.’” Doss said. “It’s something we saw on film. We knew [North Dakota] liked to play quarters on defense, so there’s no real post defender in the middle to stop the post route.”

After allowing that first North Dakota touchdown, the UC Davis defense tightened its focus. Junior defensive back Vincent White had the first of his several pass break ups on the ensuing North Dakota possession, saving a likely touchdown and forcing a North Dakota punt. The stop allowed the Aggies to capitalize on their next drive that covered 89 yards on 11 plays. Just three yards from the goal line, Maier lofted a perfect pass to sophomore tight end Wesley Preece, who hauled the ball in on a quick fade route. This score would be first of many for Preece on the evening.

A North Dakota field goal made it a 21-10 ballgame heading into the second quarter, and with the ball back in their possession again, the Fighting Hawks had a chance to cut the game to one score. Things looked promising for North Dakota after its running back, John Santiago, broke off a run of over 30 yards. It was White, however, who again came up big for the UC Davis defense, stripping the ball from Santiago and allowing his Aggie teammates to fall onto it. The strip by White swung all the momentum back to UC Davis, as senior running back Justin Williams found the end zone for the Aggies five plays later on a two yard scamper.

“We as a defense always have that ‘next play’ mentality,” Culberson said. “They can hit us for 99 yards down the field any given play — next play, next play. We can’t let what affected us change our mood and change the momentum of the game. [White] was way back behind the play, but we practice how we play. Our coaches do a great job of getting on our butts all week through practice; ‘Hey finish the play, finish the play. You never know when it’s over.’”

With the half not even over at this point, UC Davis cashed in yet again on its next possession. Maier rolled right and delivered the ball to an open Preece, who caught the ball and quickly extended it past the pylon for a 15-yard touchdown. Preece’s second score extended the Aggies’ lead to 25, but after another North Dakota touchdown and a field goal by sophomore kicker Max O’Rourke, UC Davis headed into the half up 38-17.

“We’ve been running that play through practice all week,” Preece said. “Usually during practice it went to the tailback in the flat, so I ran my route thinking it was just going to go there. But when I saw the safety come down when I ran my route, I was wide open. I turned around and said, ‘It’s coming to me, it’s coming to me.’ [Maier] threw it right out in front, I caught it and turned around and stuck the ball out because I knew I was going to get that thing in.”

In the first half alone, UC Davis had amassed an incredible 421 yards of total offense; a total which Maier and company were able to build upon in the second frame. A nine-play, 61 yard drive set up a second O’Rourke field goal early in the third quarter. This drive was then followed by a 12 play Aggie drive that ended in a fumble near the goal line. But on the very next play, senior defensive back Keleen Culberson was expecting the Fighting Hawks to take a shot deep and was there to snag an interception near the left sideline to give the ball right back to the Aggies.

“I was in the mindset, ‘hey, here they come,’” Culberson said. “They’re gonna hit a deep pass on us, let me go get it back to our offense. Fortunately it played out exactly how I thought it would [go].”

With plenty of time still remaining, UC Davis stuck to its firepower to protect its lead. After Culberson’s interception, Maier zipped a 20 yard pass through a tight window to connect with Preece for his third touchdown of the night. Early in the fourth quarter, the Aggies now led 48-17 and would play the remainder of the game on cruise control.

North Dakota, despite adding in one final touchdown and finishing the game with two 100-yard rushers, could not find enough scoring to keep pace with the UC Davis attack. Preece had a career outing with three touchdowns on eight catches for 97 yards. Maier also recorded a career-high of 415 yards through the air — the most by a UC Davis quarterback since the team moved to the Big Sky Conference — while completing 87% of his passes for four touchdowns. Williams also added in 100 all-purpose yards. When all was said and done, UC Davis had a prolific night, tallying a whopping 651 yards of total offense.

“We were confident in the plan going into tonight, definitely,” Maier said. “We feel, as an offense, that the only thing that can stop us is ourself. We expect to move the ball and make plays. The plan is set up for us to be very successful and that credit goes to our coaches and our guys for executing — our offensive line played awesome tonight, our running backs hit the holes hard, our receivers were great with the ball in their hands. Tonight my job was easy when guys are stepping up like that and the play calling obviously was tremendous.”

Aided by the UC Davis students, the crowd came out in droves for the win, as the attendance Saturday neared ten thousand. To be sure you are not missing any moments from this football season, make sure to come out next weekend when UC Davis take on Eastern Washington at Aggie Stadium. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. on Saturday.

Written by: Dominic Faria — sports@theaggie.org

The Aggies look to build off hard-fought loss

When the UC Davis women’s soccer team took the field on Friday, Sept. 15, it was hoping to put an end to its frustrations. Coming in with a 1-7 record, the Aggies hoped to gain some momentum before conference matches begin. Unfortunately, the Samford Bulldogs made the long trip west on an upswing, winning three of their last five games, along with one tie. Despite the loss, however, the game was far from a lost cause.

It was a defense-laden match, with neither team scoring until 59 minutes into the match. This put the game in the hands of the goalies, and freshman goalie Jessica Lima, starting her second game in place of junior Alexis Smith, did everything in her power to make things difficult and to protect the Aggie goal, accumulating five saves in the process. According to head coach Twila Kaufman, it took a “world class” shot to get by Lima, and that shot was the difference in the game.

Freshman forward Lauren Bouvia led the Aggies with two shots on goal, with four other Aggies getting one shot a piece. According to Kaufman, the problem didn’t lie with quality of the team’s shots. She’s actually quite pleased with that aspect. She just wants more.

“You saw three as-perfect-as-they-come opportunities,” Kaufman said. “We happened not to finish them, but, hey, we’re creating those opportunities. What I want to see in the off-part, is that we don’t have to be perfect here, but how do we create more of these opportunities, so that we can actually get this win?”

Kaufman was proud of her team’s effort, citing their non-stop effort and positive attitude through adversity as a strong suit for the team, and while she likes the strides the team is making, she would like to see that effort rewarded with some wins.

“I think winning is part of the process and this is a game I felt we actually deserved to win for ourselves,” Kaufman said. “As far as play, I do think we’re getting better […] I’m excited about the direction we’re going, but obviously winning is a part of that.”

Although the Aggies’ season is off to a slower start than they would like, nothing is set in stone, as conference play is on the horizon. The team would have a an eight-day break before its next game, followed by their first conference game against Hawaii on Friday, Sept. 28. There, if the upswing can continue, the turnaround can begin. This is what Kaufman is aiming for.

“The goal is to get into postseason play with the Big West Conference,” Kaufman said.

The women’s soccer team took the home field again after a long week off on Saturday, Sept. 23, falling to Saint Mary’s Gaels, but look to turn the losing streak around in today’s doubleheader at 1:30 p.m.

Written by: Bradley Geiser — sports@theaggie.org

UC Davis football rolls over San Diego in home opener

It sure is nice to come home. Fresh off a 38-17 season opener loss at the hands of San Diego State, the UC Davis football team, led by Aggie-alum head coach Dan Hawkins, returned home on Sept. 9 to collect its first win of the season on a warm night. The Aggies dazzled in front of a lively summer crowd on their way to defeating the University of San Diego Toreros, 35-7.

UC Davis wasted no time in impressing the home fans. On the Aggies’ third offensive play, sophomore quarterback Jake Maier stood tall in a tight pocket and delivered a strike deep down the middle of the field to junior wideout Keelan Doss for a quick 75 yard score. This familiar pairing of Maier and Doss — who connected on eight passes for 181 yards and a touchdown in the previous game — kept humming along nicely as Doss added four receptions for 100 yards against the Toreros.

With the Aggies taking an early 7-0 lead, San Diego mounted a seven-play, 84 yard drive ending in a five-yard touchdown run to even the score late in the first quarter. The response seemed to breathe some life into the entire Torero team, as the San Diego defense and special teams forced several Aggie miscues. On the following UC Davis possession, the Toreros turned up the pass rush pressure, sacking Maier for a six-yard loss to force a punt, and then intercepted Maier on an ill-advised pass over the middle on the next drive. San Diego then blocked a UC Davis punt to set up the San Diego offense in Aggie territory. Despite benefitting from these mistakes by UC Davis, the Toreros were stifled by the Aggie defense, which held San Diego to just 34 yards of offense and no scores for the rest of the half. Senior defensive back Keleen Culberson appeared to be all over the field for the Aggies, racking up a team high eight and a half total tackles.

Late in the second quarter, the UC Davis offense snapped out of its slump in time to put together a hard-nosed, 15-play drive spanning 95 yards and eating up over five minutes of the clock. The Aggies converted on four third downs on the drive, including an instrumental third and 19 pickup on a screen pass caught by senior running back Justin Williams. Williams’ 19-yard run after catch saved the UC Davis drive, where just three plays later Maier found sophomore tight end Wesley Preece open behind the Torero secondary for a 33-yard touchdown. Preece finished the night with 68 yards on four catches. The Aggies reclaimed the lead and headed into the half up 14-7.

UC Davis started the second half much like how it started the first: with a bang. On the opening possession of the third quarter the Aggies seemed to be stalled on a fourth and one in their own end. Without hesitation, Hawkins made the gutsy call to go for the first down just one yard away. Hawkins’ running back was confident in his coach’s decision.

“We have a selection of plays for that situation,” Williams said. “We practice those scenarios throughout the week. Once the play is called, we feel ready to go out there and execute it.”

And execute the Aggies did. On the next play, Williams shot through a crease on the left side of the line, burst into the secondary and sprinted 71 yards virtually untouched to the house. This enormous fourth down score set the tone for how the second half would be played out, tilting the contest overwhelmingly into the Aggies favor.

“If it’s fourth and one and we don’t go, [my players] ought to be mad at me,” Hawkins said. “They shouldn’t even look for the special teams coach. If you can’t get about six inches there, do you really deserve to win the ballgame?”

The ballgame at this point was still far from over. A fumble by sophomore receiver Aaron Moore on UC Davis’ next offensive possession gave way to a promising Torero drive that pushed the ball all the way to the Aggie 16 yard line. Instead of attempting a relatively short field goal, San Diego elected to try to convert on a fourth and six. The UC Davis defense was ready and dialed up a blitz on the next play. Junior defensive back Isiah Olave timed the snap perfectly, dashing from his corner position to chase down and sack the San Diego quarterback, forcing a turnover on downs. Hawkins was delighted with defensive coordinator Robert Tucker’s play calling.

“[Tucker] dialed it up at the right time,” Hawkins said. “We brought pressure when we had to and got home when we needed to. Modern football is about scoring and not scoring. Let [the other team] drive, let them go down the field and then bow your neck in the red zone and don’t let them score a touchdown.”

The defensive stop was yet another key turning point in the contest that helped contribute to UC Davis’ momentum. While moving the ball just across midfield on the ensuing drive, UC Davis found itself in a familiar situation as it attempted to convert on another fourth and short situation. The play began with a low snap that sent the ball dribbling around helplessly on the ground. But it was quickly picked up by Maier and fired deep down the left sideline to Moore, who made an acrobatic adjustment to haul in the pass for a gain of 23 yards and a first down.

“I saw Jake [Maier] throw it up and I was like, ‘I gotta make a play here, it’s fourth down,’” Moore said. “I was just thinking in my head that I have to go and make this catch. As receivers, we can’t take plays off. So whether or not [Maier] was going to throw my way, I had to run hard. I had the opportunity to make a play and I made sure I did that.”

Just two plays after the miracle pass that could have been a costly blunder for UC Davis, Maier completed another pass to Moore, this time for a 15-yard score to put the Aggies up three touchdowns.

“I told [Moore] I was going to make it a point to get him the ball in crucial situations because he has that playmaking ability in him,” Maier said. “He’s a very confident receiver.”

Moore recorded a team high six catches for 90 yards, while his pass-thrower Maier had a monster game in his own right; he completed 23 of 37 passes for 369 yards and 3 touchdowns. UC Davis played the rest of the game on cruise control. Williams added his second touchdown on the ground later in the fourth quarter to cap his night with 102 yards rushing on 14 carries. When all was said and done, UC Davis’ 28-point victory moved its record to 1-1 through two games.

“USD is a really good football team,” Williams said. “They’ve won 70-plus games in the last seven years – won their first playoff game last year. We came out there and executed the way we expected to. We weren’t perfect out there but we were able to hang our hat on some really good things. It was a great step forward — coming out here, defending our home turf, getting that first win.”

Hawkins also seemed pleased with the positive result on his much-anticipated UC Davis head coaching home debut. But he ignored all that circumstance, focusing on his players and the state of the program as a whole.

“I’m just really happy for [my players], I truly am,” Hawkins said. “I feel like a father when you see your kids sacrifice and believe in what you’re saying, and finally it happens. I’m really happy they get rewarded for that. I’m happy for Davis, I’m happy for the fans. Hopefully we got people juiced up, [the fans] keep coming back here and we continue to build and grow this [program] – and get people fired up about what we are doing.”

Hawkins’ Aggies certainly kept the momentum from their first win rolling. UC Davis won big in its week two matchup against Portland State, as Maier threw for 316 yards and three touchdowns, two of which were caught by Doss and Moore, and junior defensive back Ryan Parenteau recorded two blocked punts en route to a 37-14 trouncing of the Vikings. However the momentum was not enough to keep UC Davis on top at Utah to take on Weber State this past Saturday, as the Aggies faced a brutal 41-3 loss.

If the Aggies’ early success this season is any indication of what is the come for this football team, I would suggest making it a priority to visit Aggie Stadium on Sept. 30 when UC Davis returns home to take on North Dakota as a Fall Quarter gets underway.

Written by: Dominic Faria — sports@theaggie.org

Men’s water polo defeats Cal Baptist University Lancers in its opening conference match 12-9

It was a beautiful day at Schaal Aquatics Center on Thursday, Sept. 14 as the UC Davis Aggies opened up their first Western Water Polo Association conference game of the year against the Cal Baptist University Lancers. The No. 9 NCAA ranked Aggies were coming into this first game on a high from last season after having been crowned WWPA Champions for the first time since 1997. Going along with their 6-0 undefeated conference, their 23 wins in the 2016 season also broke the school record for the most single season wins. Though losing the play-in game for the NCAA championships to Harvard was tough for the team, UC Davis proved that it was a force to be reckoned with in the water, and came into Thursday wanting to continue to prove that for the new season.

Once the Aggies won the initial position in the start of the first period, it seemed to be a solely a back-and-forth possession game, until the Lancers struck first with a goal at 4:30. Cal Baptist continued to add to its lead with another goal at the five-meter mark (3:39). The two early goals did not dishearten the Aggies, however, as senior center Morgan Olson-Fabbro put one in the back of the net at the three-meter mark (1:43), ending the period with a score of 2-1.

The Aggies struck early in the second, starting with an even-strength goal from junior utility Riley Venne at 6:25. Cal Baptist responded quickly, putting one in the net at the two-meter mark (5:33), bringing the score to 3-2. With just 56 seconds left until the half, senior utility Cory Laidig struck the net for UC Davis, tying the game up at three a piece going into the half.

Junior attacker Colter Knight opened up the scoring early in the third for the Aggies at the two-meter mark to take the 4-3 lead (7:12). However, the lead became short-lived, with the Lancers responding with a goal of their own at 6:57. The goals did not stop, as freshman attacker Jack Stafford added one to the Aggies’ score at 6:31 to retake the lead 5-4. Cal Baptist continued to find ways of equalizing, tieing the game up at the two-meter mark (5:48). Shortly after, in a time period of 15 seconds, Fabbro continued to lead the Aggie offense, pulling of an impressive behind-the-back shot (4:33), along with a goal from senior attacker Spencer Galli (4:15). The Lancers shortened the two goal lead to 7-6 at 3:57 with a goal around the four-meter mark. Venne earned his second goal at 2:45, increasing the Aggie lead to 8-6. UC Davis capped the goal-scoring period with another from Fabbro, his third, at 0:13, ending the action-filled period with a 9-6 Aggie lead.

“We really focused on our defense at first,” Fabbro said. “We know that those last couple quarters that when is you have to start to bring it home and that momentum pushes us forward.”

Opening the fourth period, freshman utility Joseph Gomez continued to add points to the Aggies lead, scoring a powerplay goal at 7:33. Venne also earned a hat trick, putting his third in the back of the net at 4:52 to lengthen the lead 11-6 for UC Davis. Shortly after, Fabbro showed no mercy, and pounded his fourth goal into the back of the net to give the Aggies the 12-6 lead (4:17). After five unanswered goals, Cal Baptist was finally able to find the back of the net for the first time in the fourth, bringing the score to 12-7.  The Lancers were able to manage two more goals at 0:21 and 0:09, but the early lead built by the Aggies proved to be too much for Cal Baptist, and UC Davis took the 12-9 win.

“I think overall we did fairly well,” said head coach Daniel Leyson. “Defensively I think we did well, but we let the game get away from us in the

end. Our 6-on-5 [offense] was abhorrent and we lost concentration at the end. Overall ok, but still a long ways to go.”

As far as what the team seeks to accomplish next season, Leyson still adheres to the same three goals every season.

“We want to be in the WWPA championship game and win it, we want to be higher than top 10 in the country, and want our team G.P.A to be above 3.0,” Leyson said.

Not only was the weekend the conference opening for the Aggies, but the Aggie Roundup Tournament as well. In its remaining games, UC Davis lost 10-8 in overtime to Long Beach State, and won its last two 7-5 and 16-3 against Pepperdine and Redlands respectively. The team is 7-3 overall and 1-0 in conference play this season.

Written by: Ryan Bugsch —  sports@theaggie.org