Cal Poly dispatched Chico State last weekend to move to 5-0 in preseason play, and now the Mustangs look to a much more imposing opponent located in Berkeley, CA.

That opponent would be Cal, and certainly Cal Poly will have to raise its game to come away the victor this Saturday.

Still, the Mustangs have enjoyed a solid start. 

This past Saturday, the Cal Poly defense was strong and held Chico State to nine points in a 32-9 win. The Mustangs' Patrick Madden looked solid at flyhalf, and he has been working well with his midfielders Alex Wormer and Ryan Cooper. Wormer may well have been the best player on the day. He works as a second playmaker with Madden but is also the team’s leader.

“I would have preferred us to play out the 80 minutes and keep the scoreboard ticking over," Cal Poly head coach James Tesoriero said. "We were good in stretches but fell asleep for other stretches.”

Up front, hooker Eddie McFarland and prop Connor Cudeback set the tone.

“We’re always good up front,” Tesoriero said. “Our scrum was very good on Saturday. We just have the same issues where our scrum is rolling over opposition, but we’re not getting a penalty if the opposing scrums keep collapsing.”

There won’t be that problem again Cal, against whom the Mustangs' pack will get as good as it gives in the scrum.

“After we play Cal we will know a little bit more about where we are,” Tesoriero said. 

The Bears are also undefeated after sweeping through the Storer Classic on the campus of UCLA this past weekend.

"We are off and running now,” Cal head coach Jack Clark said of his team's 4-0 showing at the Storer. “Every healthy player on the team got to open their competition account. We won't make much of these scorelines, because they are really unimportant in the seasonal scheme of things, but we were organized and purposeful. It was a solid start."

Bears prop Kevin Sullivan added: "On and off the field, people have been putting in the work. It's great to complete this trip with everyone having the opportunity to contribute this weekend."

Cal has to be favored this weekend, because it’s been almost 14 years since Cal Poly last defeated the Bears. But a consistent performance by the Mustangs will certainly make an impression. Consistency, however, is what Cal is all about.