HS Boys

Paific Cup Round 1 Latest

The first round of the Pacific Cup is in the books, with Peninsula Green, Danville, Red Mountain, and Kahuku all winning games.

Peninsula Green played a tough game against the Bay Barbarians, a team made up of players from Archbishop Riordan and Los Gatos. it was a talented and athletic Barbarians side, but Pen Green's unity of purpose saw them through 29-12.

"We played pretty well today," said Pen Green Coach Bob Benson. "We were able to smash it up with the forwards and also did well when we got it out to the backs."

The pick of the tries was probably Sam Makaafi chasing down a kick, seeing that the CK defender couldn't gather it, and taking the ball on the bounce at full pace and galloping in under the posts.

Danville had to work for it early against CK McClatchy, but eventually the Oaks won going away 71-10.

EIRA Player of the Week - Ryan Rees

Westlake HS won the Texas state championship by a point, and it would be fair to say that without Ryan Rees, it wouldn’t have happened like that.

Of course, we could say that about anyone on the Westlake team, but we are picking Rees. The Chaps scrumhalf has had a good example to follow. His brother, Alex, is a star scrumhalf at Arkansas,  and also filled that role at Westlake.

But they are different players. Rees the elder is perhaps a little sneakier, which is maybe a function of being smaller. Rees the younger, slated to attend Life University and play rugby there, has a bit more strength to his game.

Intense Rivals Meet for Tennessee State Title

The Tennessee Boys state final is set with Ravenwood to take on Harpeth this weekend.

Ravenwood defeated Germantown 42-17 in their semifinal, led by center Andrew Rappe and flyhalf Jesse Boone in the backs, and a solid tight five effort with prop Tanner Eatherly and hooker Jesse Phillips leading the way.

Harpeth, meanwhile, was very impressive in a defeat of defending state champs South Doyle. This victory was enough to put Harpeth into the Goff Rugby Report HS Club rankings, and drop South Doyle out. The Harpeth Harlequins dominated, winning 40-12. 

2016 Boys HS Club Rankings #12

Well the HS Club rankings gut turned around drastically this week, and that is often what happens come playoff time.

Several highly-ranked teams lost games. Others showed that perhaps they are deserving of a slightly better ranking. Here are the highlights:

Coastal Dragons won two playoff games and beat #15 San Diego and they move up to #7 from #13. That is, in part, because #6, #9, #10, and #11 all lost. United lost to unranked Genesis. Here's a weird on. Genesis is undefeated, but their games have not been against some of the strongest teams in Utah. With United looking ahead to the NIT and not playing in the state playoffs, they could also have been testing out a different lineup. It's tough to evaluate, as United has done this before - lost in-state and then performed brilliantly at the NIT. 

Pacific Cup About to Kick off

The Pacific Cup kicks off Thursday at noon with some of the top HS teams in the nation facing off.

The tournament is a three-game, three-day quarterfinal-semifinal-final bracket format and will be held on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay.

The games will be hosted by the San Francisco Golden Gate club, and the tournament’s main sponsor is Canterbury.

For continued updates and the electronic version of the event program, go here.

Heading up the list is top-ranked HS club Danville, the Northern California Varsity Premier champions, but there are more:

2016 Boys Single-School Rankings #12

And so you were waiting for this one, weren't you. This single-school rankings after the #5 (and recently #2) St. Edward defeated #1 Gonzaga. Would we depose Gonzaga? Would St. Ed's get #1? 

Yes, and yes. We also toyed with the idea of moving Penn up to #3 after an almost-win v. Royal Irish. But, given the fact the Midwest playoffs are coming, we decided to hold off. And anyway, moving someone from, say, 40 to 30 because of a close loss to a very good team is easy enough, moving up to #3 for the same reason isn't easy at all.

Colorado Heads to Playoffs

The Rugby Colorado playoffs are set to start this coming weekend, with Regis Jesuit coming in as the #1 seed.

All eyes were on whether Regis or East HS would garner the top spot, especially after snow forced the postponement of their game. Finally, last week, the two teams met and Regis emerged 29-5 victors. They followed that up with another snowy game, a 35-0 defeat of Littleton to finish 7-0-1. The only blemish on their league record an opening-day 17-17 tie with Aurora.

East finished 2nd at 7-1, with Colorado Springs at 6-2 and Aurora 5-2-1.

Regis Head Coach Zach Fenoglio said the game against East was much closer than the score shows. In in truth the difference in tries scored was small - two to one. The scoring difference was that versatile back Lou Vera was a perfect 7-for-7 kicking for goal, slotting both conversions and five penalties.

SoCal Playoffs - Dragons Fire Twice

It’s playoff time in Southern California’s Boys HS Club competition, and playoffs that have been accelerated a little bit.

Over the weekend, Back Bay defeated Los Angeles 45-5 in the quarterfinals. Coastal Dragons handled Belmont Shore 43-11. The San Diego Mustangs had plenty of trouble with Orca, but held on 25-20. And finally, the San Diego Young Aztecs defeated Santa Monica 27-24 in a game that was something of a surprise.

But that wasn’t all. Because the San Diego Mustangs are playing in this week’s Pacific Cup at Treasure Island, the Mustangs were not going to be able to play this weekend’s semifinal. The Coastal Dragons could have accepted a forfeit, but instead opted to play the game on Tuesday night, May 3, and won 36-24 to make the final.

The second semifinal will be played this coming weekend between Back Bay and the Young Aztecs.

Dramatic Florida Final Goes to Orlando

Orlando nabbed the Florida Youth Rugby with a 23-21 victory over the Tampa Krewe.

This was a rematch of a game on April 9 that ended in a 12-12 tie.

The game seemed like it would be that close early on. Orlando led with a penalty kick, and then Tampa scored a try, and then Orlando scored a try to make it 10-7. But then Orlando started to pull away. A penalty, a try, and a penalty again, and it was 23-7.

Suddenly it was a commanding lead.

Gonzaga Rebounds with Win

Gonzaga rebounded form their disappointing loss to St. Edward on Saturday with a 21-6 defeat of St. Ignatius on Sunday.

The game was supposed to be played as a curtain-raiser for the Pro Rugby game in the Village of Obetz just south of Columbus, Ohio. However, rain earlier in the day prompted Ohio Pro Rugby officials to move the game to an adjoining field. There St. Ignatius started very well, with flyhalf Dan Baldado controlling field position expertly. With the slight slope of the field in his team's favor, Baldado was able to use his kicking skills to keep Gonzaga back in their half, and he added two nicely-taken penalty goals for a 6-0 lead.

Midwest HS Boys Championships This Weekend

The Midwest Boys HS champions brackets are set, with 22 teams playing in three different brackets at the Moose Rugby Grounds in Elkhart, Ind.

Royal Irish heads up the HS Club bracket, and the defending NIT champs are the heavy favorites. Fishers, which sits 3-0 in Rugby Indiana's DI, could well challenge to make the final, but it's tough to pick anyone but Royal Irish for the top spot. The battle for 5th will be a tight one, with former Michigan state champs Grandville interestingly placed as they face Royal Irish in the opening round, and if they bounce back from that game, could go on to take the Plate.

Boys HS Games This Weekend

We've got some playoffs and some more regular-season games and some leagues still starting - all here.

We will be updating through the week.