The Northern California Bay Area went 2-0 on Saturday and 2-0 on Sunday and took the Boys Varsity bracket in the Great Northwest Challenge.

Led by a dynamic backline and an unselfish and hard-working forward pack that set the platform, Bay Area defeated Southern California and Sac Valley Sunday to take the cup.

“It was a tough day,” said Jon Straka, part of the Bay Area coaching staff. “Some very tough opponents.”

Straka may have been a little generous in that both games were won fairly comfortably - 29-10 and 29-7. In fact, Bay Area was one of only two teams on Sunday to play games separated by just an hour and get a better score in the second game. That was a testament to their depth.

Straka said his team’s first opponent,  SoCal, was difficult. 

“They play really good running rugby and everyone can pass,” said Straka. “They ran hard and straight and broke tackles and offloaded well. They brought it to us and we were lucky to be winning at halftime.”

However, Bay Area took control in the second half, and kept that momentum going in the next game, running out to a 17-0 halftime lead over Sac Vally.

“All of our forwards played well and that was important for us,” said Straka. “Coming into this tournament I had a feeling we’d be good, and that it would take a really good team to beat us. They looked like a good college team, and they’re all friends, even the ones who played against each other, and they played as a unit.”

There were many standouts for Bay Area, but captain and No. 8 Damon Wiley (Danville) was superb. Prop Isaia Taotua (Danville) Scored a couple against SoCal and was a huge presence running with the ball. A 5-8, 230-pound prop who runs a 4.6 40, (yards, we assume), really showed some of his potential this weekend.

Flanker Payton Ilalio of Archbishop Riordan was aggressive on defense, while their lineouts were 100% effective. Hooker Ben Hoffman (Danville) and Wiley and Austin Strehlow (Danville) jumping had a lot to do with that. Yoshi Warnock (Peninsula Green) was powerful in the lock forward rotation, and played the entire last game - minutes earned by his performance.

All of that set up the superb backline that included Kevin Saunders (Danville), Chris Toetuu (Danville), Faitala Talapusi (Peninsula Green), and Cutler Pons (Peninsula Green) and that score on anyone.

This was a very competitive tournament, and it’s worth noting how SoCal started really well on Saturday and didn’t play poorly on Sunday, but still found it tough to score, and went 0-2. Sac Valley took second.

A somewhat disappointed Washington Loggers team rebounded from going 1-1 on Saturday and beat Oregon and Rhinos Training Academy to finish 3-1 and take 4th. And credit Western Idaho, which lost their two games on Saturday, and their first on Sunday, and then had to wait three hours to play their last game. You could forgive them for phoning it in, but instead they gave the Washington Wolverines all they could handle. The Wolverines won, but it was 25-24.

Sac Valley v SoCal. Dan Bandoni photos.