May 4, 2008

Cardinal rules

Watkins scores twice as stanford claims another national title

By John Reid / Daily News Staff Writer

Stanford had the ball in the hands of fullback Jessica Watkins as the final minute of the national championship game ticked down Saturday.

Penn State, which had contained the sleek Watkins for 39 minutes of the second half, was suddenly in trouble. Watkins, juking one defender, skirted down the sideline to put the ball down over the try line in the northwest corner of Steuber Rugby Stadium.

Try given with no time on the clock.

It was all over.

Watkins' second try of the match and seventh in the past two days, gave the Cardinal a harrowing 15-10 victory in front of a crowd of 3,741. It was Stanford's third national title in four years, the defending champion Nittany Lions the opponent in all four meetings. It was Penn State's 11th appearance in the championship match in the past 13 years.

According to Stanford coach Jonathan Griffin, Watkins was timed in a 4.92-second 40-yard dash in another person's cleats.

"Watkins is exceptional," Griffin said. "And she always wants to learn more."

"I'm just trying to contribute like everyone on the team is," Watkins said. "The last sequence was kind of a blur. I'm not sure who passed it to me."

Standoff Melissa Smit took some recycled ball and looked to her left after moving upfield. She saw Watkins out of the corner of her eye, but had to skip a Cardinal with the pass to get the ball there.

"Smit's skip pass to Watkins was fantastic," Griffin said. "It took some poise to execute it at that time, with that kind of pressure."

The Cardinal had a Nittany Lion by the tail for much of the second half. And when Penn State's Kristen Snyder scored a third phase try in the 74th minute to knot the score 10-10, it was anyone's match with the Nittany Lions holding the momentum.

"We kept calm when Penn State came back," said Stanford tighthead prop Rachel Danford, who played her last collegiate game. "But, we never wanted it to get that close."

The Cardinal backline had trouble busting loose in the second half, but scrumhalf Jossy Tseng found a big hole when she took the ball out of a set scrum as the Nittany Lions went into hibernation. Tseng ran 30 meters before she was finally brought down. But her timely break gained valuable real estate, eventually setting up Watkins' game-winner.

Both teams tackled extremely well, making it tough for either to get into an offensive flow. The Cardinal had the better of the pressure in the first half as the Nittany Lions never seriously threatened in the first 40 minutes. It was a Penn State kick to clearance that triggered the Cardinal's first try of the match. Winger Ramine Cromartie gobbled up the kick at Penn State's 40-meter line, then quickly passed to Watkins coming around. Watkins turned on the gas, burning by two Penn State defenders, then cutting inside for the try in the 25th minute.

A Penn State penalty deep in its own territory gave the Cardinal an opportunity to either go for points - taking a 3-point penalty kick attempt - or kicking for touch. Stanford chose the latter, securing a lineout on the Nittany Lions' 3-meter line. Within seconds, the ball was in a maul before it popped out to Jennifer Cooperrider, who went upfield a couple of yards before she was tackled. Cooperrider alertly passed the ball to Tseng, who powered over the line with two defenders draped on her in the 34th minute for 10-0 Stanford.

"It feels good to score a try in my last game," said Tseng, a 2004 alum of Palo Alto High who ended her collegiate career Saturday. "We've worked 365 days a year for this, especially after losing that close game to Penn State last year."

Tseng's try was at center-post, which meant Smit's conversion was a chip shot. However, Smit's kick was ruled to have gone to the left of the left post. The scoreboard operator assumed it was good, putting two points on the board before wiping it off.

"I thought the kick was borderline," said Smit, a graduate of Notre Dame-Salinas High. "It might have been good. Thank God the game didn't come down to that miss."

The Nittany Lions tallied their first try thanks to the efforts of Aleana Kuhn, who stayed with a mishandled kick on the part of the Cardinal. Kuhn kept going forward, picking the ball up on the bounce, taking the ball for a nice break. The Nittany Lions trudged forward without Kuhn, who was hurt on the sequence and had to leave the match. After a 5-meter scrum, flanker Alison Worman scored in the 54th minute.

"We made some adjustments at halftime," Penn State coach Peter Steinberg said. "We wanted to keep it simple and keep moving forward. Our problem was that we only scored 10 points. We needed to score 20 points to win. That's what we thought before the match started."

"We made mistakes in the second half," Griffin said. "We had players trying to do too many things on their own. Penn State deserves the utmost respect. They came out in the second half and played tremendous rugby. We've played them three close games in a row, and this was the best game as far as quality of the match goes. This match was played at the highest level."

In a bit of a twist, Steinberg coaches Watkins on the USA Rugby 7-a-side developmental squad.

"We did a good job defending Watkins for most of the match," Steinberg said. "She has the athleticism to beat you if she gets loose."

Stanford had the ball in the right pair of hands at the right time - in Watkins'.



E-mail John Reid at jreid@dailynewsgroup.com.