There weeks before Rugby Oregon’s finals weekend, undefeated Polk County faced off with undefeated Northside Panthers, and the Panthers won 38-17.

Both teams ended up winning their respective conferences anyway, but it seemed clear that Northside was the stronger team.

Of course, that’s why they play the playoffs.

That April 30 38-17 win for Northside was flipped around to the tune of 26 points on Saturday, as the Polk County Lost Boys took the Rugby Oregon Boys Club championship with a 20-15 victory.

An upset? Coach Joe Boyd said … “it was definitely an upset. I don’t think anyone thought we could pull it off.”

It all came down to making adjustments. For Polk County that meant handling a bigger, very physical Northside attack. 

“The first time we played them we underestimated their physicality,” said Boyd. “We tried to play a fast-paced game and they shut it down pretty easily. We did things like take quick taps in our own half, and we did that too much.”

So the plan instead was to slow things down when the circumstances warranted, kick for the lineout from their own half, and be careful.

“We played a little safe, and it worked,” said Boyd.

The game itself went back and forth. Hooker Zachary Diaz got Polk County on the board with a penalty kick. Northside replied with a try, and then Diaz added another penalty to make it 6-5. 

“Part of the plan was to take points when we had the opportunity,” said Boyd. “We got into their 22 and got a penalty, and we took the points.”

But then Northside scored two tries to take a 15-6 lead that the Panthers held for a long period.

Then with about 13 minutes left, two things happened. First, Northside got a yellow card, giving Polk an opportunity to perhaps get closer. Second, lightning came close to the field. So the teams left the field of play and waited - 75 minutes until they re-took the field safely.

“We were worried what the game would be like once we got back,” said Boyd. “We felt we were about to region some momentum, and we wondered if the stoppage would hurt us.”

It didn’t. With Northside shorthanded, Polk County struck. Flyhalf Madison Stepp zipped in for a try, and Diaz converted to make it 15-13 for Northside. Then, Polk County went back and made it to the tryline. But that attempt ended in a knock-on, giving Northside a scrum on their own five-meter. But Polk stole the put-in, and No. 8 Dylan Thompson picked up and ran weak to go over.

That put Polk County ahead 18-15, and then Diaz slotted a really tough conversion kick to put his side up by an unconverted try at 20-15.

Knowing they needed a try to tie it up, Northside put everything they had into the final moments, but Polk County held on, and became state champions. The 2015 winners, Beaverton, beat Bend 36-19 to finish 3rd in the state (the Plate). The Valley Rams beat East Oregon 46-34 to take the Bowl, Clark County beat North Clackamas 50-41 in the Shield final, and the Wooden Spoon (9th) final went to Southeast 49-14 over Oswego.