Mechanicsburg, PA- The 2014 Rugby Pennsylvania State Championships took place this past weekend at Cumberland Valley High School with West Shore United and Cumberland Valley taking home the top honors in the High School Boys brackets.

West Shore United took home the High School Club title while Cumberland Valley took home the single school championship. The two neighboring clubs are located about fifteen minutes away from each other in Central Pennsylvania just west of Harrisburg.

West Shore United reached the final by defeating the Carlisle Thunder in the semi-final 88-10. West Shore took control of the match early with dynamic back line play. Inside center Jayden Demmy and fullback Gage Shackelford would each score three times in the rout to lead West Shore. In the other club semi-final, Doylestown upset #2 seed Downingtown 34-31 in a back and forth match that could have easily gone either way. Downingtown had defeated Doylestown the previous week by a large margin, but Doylestown made the adjustments they needed to make and pulled off the dramatic upset.

In the State Championship match, Doylestown was hoping to pull off upset number two of the weekend against the #1 seed from West Shore United. West Shore put any upset ideas to rest early by streaking out to a 21-0 lead midway through the first half led by the bruising runs of #8 RJ Fisher and the timely kicking of fly half Leo VanBuskirk, a Penn State recruit. VanBuskirk scored a try and kicked three penalty goals in the first half to pace West Shore. Center Jayden Demy and wing Connor Parson would also touch down for West Shore in the first half, while Doylestown were only able to convert one penalty. The first half ended with West Shore holding a comfortable 26-3 lead.

West Shore slammed the door shut in the second half by scoring three early tries to increase their lead to 45-3 before Doylestown finally found the try zone making it 45-8. West Shore put in two more tries to increase the lead to 59-8. Doylestown would score a late converted try to bring the final score to 59-15 in favor of West Shore United. The victory concluded a 12-0 season for West Shore United that included a win over Single School State Champion Cumberland Valley early in the season.

In the Single-School bracket, Cumberland Valley defeated Conestoga 46-19 in their semifinal. CV was led by the superb play of fly-half Ryan Maguire who will be continuing his rugby career at Wheeling Jesuit next fall. Maguire made several penetrating runs that softened up the Conestoga defense for his inside center Chris Harrell. Felix Belga was a force on defense tackling everything that came his way and #8 Kyle Wotring had several line breaks throughout the match. The big Cumberland Valley victory would set up a showdown with St. Joseph’s Prep out of Philadelphia. St. Joe’s Prep defeated Pittsburgh Central Catholic 29-14 in their semifinal.

In the Single School Championship match it was all Cumberland Valley in the first half as they scored 25 unanswered points. Once again fly half Ryan Maguire stood out with probing runs and timely off loads to lead CV. St. Joe’s Prep came to life in the second half by scoring first to cut into the lead, but Cumberland Valley answered back immediately with a try of their own to seize back the momentum and hold on to the lead. Prep would add two more late scores to make the final 32-15 in favor of Cumberland Valley. The victory capped off a 13-1 season for Cumberland Valley, with their only loss coming by the narrowest of margins to High School Club State Champ West Shore United early in the season.

Here are the scores and winners of all of the Rugby PA State Championship matches played over the weekend:

Youth (13U) Finals- Downingtown 53-5 Cumberland Valley
Junior (15U) Finals- Doylestown 49-12 Conestoga
D2 High School Girls Final West Shore United 14-12 West Chester
D1 High School Girls Final Doylestown 13-13 Downingtown
D2 High School Boys Final West Allegheny 59-24 Narberth
D1 High School Club Boys West Shore United 59-15 Doylestown
Boys Single School Final Cumberland Valley 32-12 St. Joseph’s Prep