Feb 19- Arizona hit the road this past weekend in a tough non-conference matchup, taking on #19 San Diego State looking for their fourth straight victory.

 

The California Conference members would prove a stiff test for the Wildcats early, jumping to a 6-0 lead on two penalties before Arizona answered back through some strong attacking play by Fullback Kyle Rogers and Center Ben Joseph. A third SDSU penalty was responded to emphatically by Scrumhalf Matt Rogers, with his kick and chase try cutting the lead to 9-7 after an Anton Grigoriou conversion going in to half time. In the second half, the Wildcats put together long strings of attacking phase play only to be turned away by the stout SDSU defense, with two Aztec tries putting the game out of reach at 23-7. A final Aztec try was again met by a Matt Rogers score, with the halfback touching down to make it 30-12 and serve as too little too late for the Wildcats.

 

The loss is the first since January 21st for the Wildcats, who put together impressive victories over Utah Valley, UCLA, and Grand Canyon University heading into this game. Head Coach Sean Duffy pointed to the teachable moments from this loss as the Cats return to conference play this week. "You're never happy to lose, but you're happy in the long term if a loss helps refocus things for your team, and I have a feeling that this will do that" said Duffy "we could have scheduled an easy win, we could have given guys a rest and had a bye week. Our belief is that playing good teams is the best way to learn and our guys learned firsthand how hard it is to play on the road against quality teams. We'll be better for it."

 

PAC play resumes for the Wildcats this week with a clash against Arizona State in Tempe next up. Arizona Second XV also takes on the Sun Devils and looks to build on this past weekend's 42-5 victory over San Diego State Junior Varsity.

 

 

 

SCORING

Tries: M. Rogers (2)

Conversions: Grigoriou- 1/1, Thayer- 0/1