Last year's champions Berkeley off to a good start. (Photo courtesy of Cal Berkeley).
In the 3rd round of this year’s Northern California Collegiate Hurling Championship at San Francisco GAA headquarters, Treasure Island on Saturday, champions University of California Berkeley – known locally as Cal – despite going behind early went on to record an emphatic victory of 51 (11-18) to 7 (1-04) over this year’s rookie outfit UC Davis .
The students from Davis after suffering big defeats to inaugural champions Stanford in the previous two weeks, came out with all guns blazing for their third hurling initiation and thundered into the lead when grabbing an eye-opening one goal and one point (1-01) in the first five minutes.
Davis had adjusted their game plan somewhat and let the ball rather than legs do a lot more of the work. A new goalie was doing well between the uprights and this allowed their captain James Daly, a more experienced player, to influence outfield.
Cal meanwhile in their first game of the season took a while to get into things but slowly they began to turn it on and by the end of the first half they led by 17 (3-08) to 7 (1-04).
Though trailing, Davis had proven a match for their more experienced Bay area opponents in that first period and hope still lingered for more of the same for the second. However Cal pushed on again and unfortunatley for Davis they could not stay with them this time as tired legs and a limited bench took effect.
