WESTWOOD — In their first match of the 2018 PAC Conference season, the UCLA Bruins dispatched their cross-city rivals, USC, in a 74-16 trouncing. A pristine pitch and beautiful weather supplemented the day's work as the Bruins ran in 11 tries while conceding only one in return.
Eric Naposki-Abdalah, Ben Broselle, and Matthew Williams led UCLA with four, three, and two tries on the day, respectively, while All-American Cian Barry kicked six conversions and a drop goal in a solid performance from fly-half.
UCLA got off to a racing start and were on the board less than five minutes into the match. Senior center, James Francis, snaked through a number of USC arm tackles to open the floodgates. The boys in blue were over the try line again less than two minutes later thanks to a scorching run down the wing from Eric Naposki-Abdalah to bring UCLA out to a 12-0 lead. Ben Broselle scored a third try for the Bruins in the 10th minute to make it 19-0 before USC even had a clean chance in the Bruins' half.
A sloppy turnover turned into a sloppy penalty against UCLA in the 13th minute, allowing the Trojans their first chance at points. USC's fly-half didn't miss the kick from 35 m out, pulling the gap down to 16 points.
Even so, the Bruins were back down the other way in no time as Ben Purcell ran through a hapless USC defense for his second try of the day. By the time a quarter of an hour was gone the Bruins held a hefty 26-3 lead.
The Bruins' onslaught lulled after Broselle's try as sloppiness and missed opportunities took hold of UCLA's match. Two successful Trojan penalty goals shrunk the lead to 26-9, but a third try from Ben Broselle in the 26th minute snapped the Bruins from their 10 minute lull. It would take UCLA another 10 minutes before their next scores. Senior Matt Williams scored his first and second tries of the season thanks to two powering run through USC's defense in the space of two minutes. Thanks to Williams's pair of scores, the Bruins led by a comfortable 45-9 at half time.
The second half started off faster than the first with Naposki-Abdalah scoring once again after a minute and 43 seconds to build to a 52-9 lead. Another spell of UCLA sloppiness gave USC their most possession in the match up to that point, and by the 55th minute the Trojans had finally scored their first try of the season.
The Bruins' tenacity showed through after USC's score, however, as a beautiful full-field counter-attack let Naposki-Abdalah through for his third try. Although the conversion was missed, Cian Barry slotted a drop goal two minutes later to make up for it.
UCLA had two more tries in store before the match was over thanks to the efforts of Naposki-Abdalah (his fourth try) and substitute fly-half Yoh Nakayama. All-in-all, UCLA was dominant through 90% of the match, beating the Trojans 74-16. Without the periods of mistakes and penalties, who knows how high the Bruins would have soared.
Check back later this week for updates on our upcoming match against Arizona State on January 27 here in Westwood! Go Bruins!
