Cal Loses to No. 1 Navy in National Rugby Title Match
Cal let an early 15-0 lead slip away and let its chance for a 29th national rugby title slip away as well as the Bears lost to No. 1-ranked, unbeaten Navy 28-22 on Saturday in the national title match of the D1A National Collegiate Championships in Houston Texas.
Cal has won 28 national championships in rugby 15s, although two of those were Varsity Cup national titles, and 26 were D1A National Collegiate Championships titles.
The Golden Bears had lost to Navy 33-28 eight weeks ago on March 11 in Annapolis, Maryland, in a regular-season contest, resulting in the Bears' first loss of the season.
However, in the early going of Saturday's finals Cal seemed to be on its way to its first National Collegiate Championships title since 2011 and its first national championship of any kind since 2017. But Navy clawed its way back into the match, and Landon Opp gave the Midshipmen their first led of the day by scoring a try with 12 minutes left in the second half.
Cal threatened on several occasions thereafter but could not score again.
The Golden Bears, who finished with a 13-4 record, had its way in the first 25 minutes of the game. A try by Kealan O'Connell and a conversion by Max Schumacher gave the Bears a 7-0 lead 10 minutes into the game. Emilio Shea's try made it 12-0, and although Schumacher missed the conversion after that try, he converted a three-point penalty kick to push Cal's advantage to 15-0 with about 17 minutes left in the first half.
Navy got back in the game with try by William Webb, and then another by Sean MacLaney with a minute left in the first half closed the gap to 15-14 as Roanin Krieger got conversions after both tries.
A Joe Kirsten try and Schumacher conversion pushed Cal's lead to 22-14 about 12 minutes into the second half, but a Ryan Bullock try and Krieger conversion got the Midshipmen within a point with 18 minutes left.
A long run by Navy's Opp then put Navy ahead 26-22 and Krieger's conversion put the Midshipmen ahead 28-22 with 12 minutes left.
That's the way it ended.
Saturday’s match was the third time in past four National Collegiate Championships that Cal has reached the title game, but it lost both of its previous title matches in 2018 and 2019 as well as this year's match. (The National Collegiate Championship were not held in 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic.)
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