Day One is in the books at the West Coast 7s and while several favorites showed well, there were also a few surprises.

Pool A

Cal won comfortably ... well, mostly comfortably, in going 3-0. The Bears ran out a variety of squads, getting time for some young players and seeing if they could sink or swim. They could swim, but some handled the waves better than others.

What Cal found was that if you take anyone even a little bit lightly, you can be burned. USC hurt Cal twice and tied the game 14-14 at the stroke of halftime. Michael Cesar has been a revelation for the Trojans and scored those two tries.

But Cal pulled away and the key was that there wasn't much of a standout for the Bears. They rotated well enough and played superbly as a unit. 

USC went 2-1 and took 2nd, although there was a lot of talk about the CCAC team. Dubbed Central Coast Athletic Club, this was basically Cuesta College, a junior college in California's Central Coast. The Cougars scored a dramatic try against Cal in a loss, but a try that garnered one of the bigger crowd reactions of the day.

Pool B

UCLA enjoyed a big day from Eric Naposki, who unleashed his devastating sidestep on several occasions. Patrick Regan, Jack McKeon, and Yanick Mendes all had moments, as UCLA went 3-0. While the Bruins weren't surprising on offense, defensively they were very strong and worked hard.

@UCLA_RUGBY 3-0 at @WestCoast7s pic.twitter.com/yZeZjcHLOY

— FloRugby (@FloRugby) October 21, 2018

Cal Maritime was one of three teams to go 1-2, but took 2nd by having a better points difference. Overall, the Keelhaulers showed some nice flashes and were one of the surprises of the tournament.

Pool C

Arizona won 41-0, 34-0, and 45-7 and dominated the opposition. More than any team, the Wildcats showcased some well-planned offensive moves, and executed nicely thanks in large part to the generalship of Matt Rogers.

While Arizona seemed to dominate, UC Davis put in a ton of work to take 2nd.

Pool D

This was a pool of many close games, with Stanford losing two games by less than a try. The Cardinal put Sac State to the sword to end on the positive side in points difference, and could well take the Bowl. But atop this conference was Cal Poly. 

All three Mustangs games were close, but, as Patrick Madden said, "we play well when we have fun and we're playing champagne rugby." This they did, and Madden was excellent. No longer a slight freshman, he's leading the team and looking physically stronger as well as more confident.

The run for Cal Poly included a 22-14 defeat of a Utah team that is probably going to be even stronger on Sunday. They might not beat Cal in the quarters, but the Utes have the capability, and certainly could take the Plate.

All Scores And Standings