After Saturday’s 44-15 victory in the Penn Mutual Varsity Cup Championships’ opening round against UCLA, Central’s men’s rugby team moves on to the quarterfinals and to play against the University of Utah this Saturday.

The Penn Mutual Varsity Cup is not part of the regular rugby season and schedule, and is an offseason tournament between teams across the country that have joined the cup.

The Penn Mutual Varsity Cup has created a pseudo rivalry between Central and Utah, as they have played in the last two years’ quarterfinals, with Central winning both as close games.

Head coach Tony Pacheco credits Utah’s tenacity for the close games the teams have played.

“They’re a really scrappy bunch,” Pacheco said. “They like to hold the ball for long periods of time, trying to starve you of possessions.”

Coach Pacheco said that although the score may seem to tell another story, Central did not play to its full potential against UCLA, which beat Utah earlier in the season. He attributed a slow first half for Central to a long break between competitions and high winds in Ellensburg last Saturday. He said the game didn’t truly showcase the team’s ability to score points.

“I think we had some dust to knock off early, but once we did, we got better through the 80 minutes,” he said.

Graduate student Aladdin Schirmer, the team’s 8-man, shared Pacheco’s sentiment.

“We just need to be more conservative in the first half,” Schirmer said. “We try to play too fast, too early.”

Schirmer explained that passing between his teammates, including his younger brother, junior flanker Maverick Schirmer, needs to be executed throughout the game.

“It’s that first 20 minutes, it’s just keeping it together and keeping it composed,” Aladdin Schirmer said. “We’re like a snowball rolling downhill. Sooner or later we’re impossible to stop.”

Junior fullback Ian Wright believes the previous matchups against Utah gave Central the ability to pull away more this year than in the other quarterfinal games.

“We know what they want to do,” Wright said. “In the past we haven’t had the guys to matchup with them, but I think this is the year we can be physical and upfront with them.”

Utah is enjoying a successful season of its own, and last Saturday they defeated the Air Force Academy 36-31 in the closest game of the tournament’s opening round.

Air Force was able to take the lead 31-29 late in the second half after Utah had been ahead for most of the match. Utah regained and held the lead to advance, displaying a level of perseverance and spirit Central did not have to show in a runaway second-half victory against UCLA.

Due to the team’s belief in each other and their abilities as a whole, Coach Pacheco doesn’t believe Utah’s endurance will impact Central’s chances against them.

“It comes down to execution to us,” Pacheco said. “If we execute, we’ll be fine.”