Arizona rolls, but brawl causes rugby game to be called

By Joseph M. Molina
Arizona Daily Wildcat
March 5, 1996

This past weekend, the Arizona men's club rugby team had an unfortunate experience that it will not soon forget.

The team traveled to California Friday for a match with Cal State-Fullerton to play rugby, but instead found itself involved in an outright brawl. The game got so out of hand that the officials had to call the game 20 minutes into the second half.

The 30-7 victory for Arizona (9-4 overall, 4-3 in the Pacific Coast Collegiate Rugby Conference) was its fourth-consecutive win and places the Wildcats in postseason contention.

The players from Fullerton were not fit to play, and wanted to fight more than play rugby, sophomore Paul Enegren said.

"They really didn't know how to play the game," he said.

"Some of the fans came onto the field and they also wanted to fight," Arizona head coach Dave Sitton said. "I will protest this to the conference, and hope that they are suspended."

Sitton added he was proud of his team for their behavior.

"It was a waste of time and money to go and play this team," Enegren said.

Last year Fullerton forfeited by not making the trip to Arizona.

In the 22 years he has been in the Arizona program, something like that had never happened, Sitton said.

Enegren, Chris Everett, Luther Ward, Mike Fair and Zach Harrison all scored trys for Arizona in the win.

The fourth-ranked Arizona men's lacrosse team faced UCLA on Sunday afternoon and pulled out a 15-9 victory.

Arizona was the more dominant team, but was physically and emotionally drained from Saturday's huge 15-14 win over Chapman, Laxcat head coach Mickey-Miles Felton said.

The setting was sudden-death overtime on Saturday night, when Laxcat freshman Dan Price picked up a loose ball, that had just bounced off the Chapman goal, and fired it into the goal for the win over Chapman with just six seconds left in the overtime period.

"The ball just rolled to me, and I shot it as quickly as possible," Price said.

The Laxcats (5-0) allowed No. 2 Chapman (4-1) to score a goal 12 seconds into the game, and fell behind 6-2 early in the second quarter. But the team roared back, tying the score at 7 by halftime.

Junior David Wilner tied the game with 21 seconds left in the second period, after junior Josh Sfara scored three of his game-high seven goals in the second period.

"The team had confidence in me to score," Sfara said.

Arizona lost its focus on the game and fell behind 12-8 in the fourth period. The breakdown occurred in the third quarter, as the Panthers kept the ball on the Wildcats' side of the field.

After falling behind for a second time, Felton said he kept his team calm and didn't let them panic.

"The players didn't get down. They had confidence that they could score and did," he said.

With 37 seconds left in regulation, the Laxcats tied the game at 14.

"We took the momentum and ran away with it," Sfara said.

The most important aspect in the win was how the team played, Felton said.

"You can lead them to the field, but you can't make them play," he said.

"The team got together, and everybody played their role," Sfara said.

"It was just a tremendous effort," Felton said.

Chapman's offensive weapon, Scott Petersen, was shut down by senior A.J. Irland, who allowed him to score just one goal in the game. Laxcat goalie Justin Nels also came up big with 19 saves.

"Our goalie is the reason we won the game," Sfara said.

Can you say "blowout?"

The Arizona women's lacrosse club "B" team can.

UA hosted the University of Redlands this weekend at Wildcat Field and blasted the Bulldogs 20-0.

Arizona got the game going quickly when junior Jillian Gant scored the game's first three goals just a few minutes into the game. She finished with a game-high seven goals.

The Laxcats were up 13- 0 at the half.

Senior Penny Miller and sophomore Ellen Higgins each had three goals. Jill Fowler and Stephanie Freeman had two goals and two assists each, while freshman goaltender Tami Hubbert made five saves.

The only downside to the game was that sophomore Anna Brown suffered a broken finger.

Arizona's "A" team game was canceled because UCLA had transportation problems. The game will be rescheduled.

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