Central Washington endured a knock-down, drag-out final to beat Arizona 17-15 for the West Coast Sevens title in San Francisco on Sunday.

The all-Wildcat championship game came about after both teams — as well as Cal and Utah Valley University — won their pools after going 3-0 to open the tournament on Saturday.

Also making the quarterfinals were UCLA, Arizona State, USC, and San Diego State.

(All photos David Barpal)

UCLA, in fact, almost upended Central Washington in the quarterfinals, before finally losing out 24-21. But CWU came close to paying the price of being in an easy pool with USC, Sonoma State, and Santa Clara.

The Wildcats shut out all three opponents, and as a result, UCLA gave them an early Sunday shock.

Arizona had no trouble with USC, while UVU and Cal both made it through to the semis.

For their part, the Cal Bears took a mostly freshman and sophomore team to the West Coast. That was a move more than one team made, using the tournament to get newer players the feeling of wearing an A-side jersey. 

Sophomore Christian Dyer was the Bears' top scorer on the weekend, with 40 points on four tries and 10 conversions (10 for 17), including a try in the last match. 

"Overall, not too bad," Cal head coach Jack Clark said. "Lots of lessons, of which we are appreciative."

George Salter was another sophomore who helped control tempo with reliable possession in the air before an injury ended his weekend against Utah Valley. 

"At times we showed some really good 7s," Clark said. "We were fortunate to represent our university this weekend. Whether freshmen or sophomores or any class year, when we put on the jersey, we are Cal."
 
Sophomore Keanu Andrade captained the Bears during the weekend and added, "We definitely showed improvement and finished on a good note."

In the semis, Arizona defeated UVU 17-5. The Wildcats ran out three Rogers brothers on the day — Jon, Kyle, and Matt — and also added some additional young talent (Jon Rogers is a freshman), including Zach Heisterkamp and Anton Grigoriou.

"Our No. 1 goal this fall is development," Arizona head coach Sean Duffy said. "Tournaments like this are crucial. We have some really talented players we're leaving at home and selecting for Silicon Valley to make those rosters as even as possible and blood in a large number of players going into January."

In the final, Cole Zarcone scored two crucial tries to help CWU come back from an early deficit, and Scott Dean scored what proved to be the game-winner to take down Arizona.

Down 10-5, CWU saw Zarcone dart through the middle and keep going as no one could catch him. Ian Wright's crucial conversion put CWU ahead 12-10. Dean then took an offload from Zarcone, the MVP of the tournament, and put Central Washington up 17-10.

Arizona managed to score once more, but the game-tying conversion was missed.

In a dramatic finish, UA had a chance to win the game on chase for a loose ball near the CWU try line. However, Central's Dominic Lindstrom won the chase and managed to shepherd the ball over the dead ball line to end the game. 

"I'm just super proud of our guys," CWU head coach Todd Thornley said. "Going through no outside competition and evolving over the past two days to become champions, it's an incredible feat and shows their hard work and dedication."

Cal defeated UVU for third place behind two tries from Marcus Shankland. UCLA took fifth (the plate) from crosstown rival USC in a 22-5 win. UC Davis won the bowl (ninth) over Cal Poly.

While this tournament hasn't officially been labeled a USA Rugby Collegiate 7s Championships qualifier, it probably will be retroactively. Central Washington joins Arkansas, which won the Red River, and Western Washington, which won the Northwest Collegiate Rugby Conference, as likely automatic qualifiers for USA Rugby's final event.

Western Washington took the shield, beating UCSB 31-0 in the 13th/14th-place playoff.