The Dallas Harlequins Colts continued their strong second half with a 19-12 defeat of St. Pius X in the Rugby Texas quarterfinals.

It was a bruising encounter for both teams, and St. Pius led 12-7 at halftime. But two second-half tries saw the Colts through to the semifinals.

Torres had a big game for the Colts.

The Colts opened the season 2-3 with losses to Allen, Westlake, and Lake Travis. But since then they’ve gone 5-0.

“We felt we had a good team,” said Head Coach Mark McCloy. “Even against Westlake and Lake Travis we were leading at halftime and just ran out of gas.”

Those early games instilled in the player an understanding that they needed to be fitter, and as a result they have finished games, and the season, strong.

Against a big St. Pius team the plan was for the Colts to stay out of unnecessary contact and move the ball around. Of course, that didn’t quite happen in the first half.

“We played into their hands a little bit,” said McCloy. “We had been teaching them all week to take the point of contact into the 12 to 13 channel, but they didn’t.”

Pius scored twice to lead at halftime, but in the second half the Colts started playing a more wide open game, and the big Pius forwards were run a little bit off their feet. The Colts scored twice and had two more really good try-scoring opportunities go begging, but it was enough to move on.

Prop Parker McMillan and hooker Jorge Torres led the Quins Colts’ effort up front, while No. 8 Jordan wander was aso effective. But perhaps the most notable performance was by Clay Kennedy. Thrust into playing center for the first time due to unavailability by both Colts midfielders, Kennedy was a tackling machine and set the tone defensively.