The second week of Life West’s Cal Cup season has again ended in victory over the Old Aztecs of San Diego in a close-fought 27-25 win. Scoring four tries for the second time in two weeks, they took away all five points putting them in a tie for first at the top of the table with SFGG. Life West also retain the Jarrod Faul “Chur Bro” Cup for the third year in a row.
For the Old Aztecs they pick up their first points of the competition.
Early penalties from Guillaume Cazenave for Life West and Tim Howard for the Old Aztecs started off a match of back-and-forth action, with San Diego leading 6-3 after twenty minutes. Life were able to find their rhythm and were able to break the line, eventually leading to a converted try. At the half Life West led 10-6 through a try to Pila Longi.
Starting the second half, Life West continued their momentum and scored a converted try off pressure to move up to 17-6. The Old Aztecs responded five minutes later through a try by Tasi Toilolo to cut it to four. Life West would continue the trend of swapping scores with yet another through Jay Finau to put it to 22-13.
Great work from Robert Stortz for the Old Aztecs and a conversion by Tim Howard put his team within two with 15 minutes to go. Soon they were able to grab another try to push it to 25-22 with five minutes to go. That missed conversion would turn out to be costly. With less than a minute to go Life West went through multiple phases and the length of the field for the match winning score through Junior Helu. Head coach Adriaan Ferris was pleased with the win, saying “We clearly have found we can win games. For us, it’s just the mental application.” He continued, explaining “If we get our energy right and our focus right, we can accomplish something…We need to be in games to perform.” The Gladiators look forward to a perfect record before the Christmas break with a contest against Olympic Club this upcoming weekend.