HS Boys

HSAAs to Elite 7s Final

The High School All Americans are into the Boys HS Elite 7s Final after putting in a close to flawless performance against the Upright Rugby Rogues in the semifinal.

The HSAA team will face British Columbia for the fifth time in a row in Sam Boyd Stadium Saturday afternoon.

The HSAA team beat Ontario II 44-0 in the quarterfinals, while BC shut out Atlantis 26-0 in the quarters. Upright Rugby beat the Washington Loggers 36-0, while Ontario I beat Utah 34-12.

So on to the semis. BC won comfortably over Ontario, while the HSAA shut out Upright 36-0.

Boys Elite 7s Latest

It was a wild day in the Boys HS Elite 7s at the Las Vegas Invitational, with only one team out of 12 finishing the day 3-0.

That team was the High School All Americans, who were strong in the rucks and smart in their decision-making, and overcame a tough Upright Rugby Rogues squad to finish atop their pool.

Atlantis Boys Win LVI Open HS 7s

Atlantis won the Boys HS Open 7s Friday at the Las Vegas Invitational, defeating British Columbia’s 2nd team in the final.

Atlantis won their pool, going 3-0, and then ran the table on Day Two. They defeated South Side Irish 17-7 in the quarterfinals, and then hammering Littleton 28-7 in the semis.

Both opponents were big, physical teams that succeeded by holding possession and forcing defenses to tackle their big, powerful runners. Atlantis defeated them by being dependable in the tackle, and clinical when they had the ball. And they had pace.

HS Boys Open: Latest

A few teams in the Boys Open HS 7s at the LVI emerged as true title contenders after Thursday's pool play.

The Utah Lions brought a combination of tough defense and explosive punishment of turnovers to go 3-0 in Pool A. Ma'afu Mahina epitomized that play with a spectacular try against Smokey Mountain, pushing away a couple of tacklers, fending off two more, and the tightroping along the sideline while outpacing the remaining defenders.

South Side Irish came second in Pool A. After starting poorly, the big Chicago squad learned their lessons, and kept ahold of the ball to go 2-1.

Tennessee Tri-Star Blue produced a good brand of team rugby to win Pool B, with the KC Cougars doing what South Side did, learning from their mistakes and nailing down their defense to hold off supposedly superior opposition.

Key Biscayne Keeps Going

With their defeat of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Key Biscayne Rats, new to HS rugby in Florida, are now 3-0.

The team (see here for more), made up largely of kids of Argentine and Uruguayan immigrants, many of whom still play. They started a youth program and now that the players are old enough, a high school program. Now 3-0, the Rats have a job ahead of them as they will take on 3-0 Naples next weekend.

Head Coach Nicolas Seigal said he was pleased with how the team has played so far.

"I have to say the team play with great attitude, and it was a collective effort," the coach explained. "Some of the kids that are better equipped clearly made a difference. It would not be fair to highlight one or two players because the 19 kids that played did it at a really high level."

Aircraft Charter Solutions PoW - Malon Al-Jiboori

Maybe genes have something to do with it, but he’s got work to do, as well.

Malon Al-Jiboori may have a Collegiate All-American brother in Oklahoma University’s Michael Al-Jiboori, and with that comes a propensity toward speed, power, size, and some rugby acumen as well.

the young Al-Jiboori is a central player for the Union U19 team in Oklahoma, and will be getting a chance to see what else he can do as he joins the HS All Americans in Las Vegas for the Boys Elite 7s presented by Serevi at the LVI this week.

Salty Thompson has picked the 6-3, 225-pound No. 8 for the 7s team even though Al-Jiboori might not fit the profile.

“He might be a bit of an experiment, but a lot of guys are, and we’ve had experiments before,” said Thompson. “But he brings so much up-side. He’s just a powerful kid who gets us go-forward. That’s what we’ll look for from him.”

Bosco, View Park Ride Improvement to Title Game

Back in December View Park Prep edged St. John Bosco 14-12. 

It was a crucial result for View Park, which had started its season with a loss to Dana Hills and needed to get back into playoff contention.

As it turned out, it was an important result for both teams, as Bosco learned that they didn’t have it all figured out, and View Park learned they might have a chance. Now, with both teams improving over the season, they will meet in the Southern California Varsity White title game on Feb 14.

This past weekend, St. John Bosco took on the Mira Costa Mustangs in a repeat of a fixture from January that had ended in a 26-26 tie. This game, played as a curtain-raiser for the Utah v UCLA game, was almost all Bosco.

Boys 2014-15 HS Standings

Here Goff Rugby Report will post the latest Boys HS standings. 

Some of the leagues don't update scores quickly, and sometimes there will be errors. We apologize in advance and hope you will let us know when we've got something incorrect so we can fix it.

However, for the most part we've got it right. 

Some notes: We will continue to add leagues as they begin play. Southern California's Varsity league runs from December into early March. Then they switch to club play. So the Varsity leagues will be stagnant after a time.

Pirates Sail - Fla HS Latest

The Cape Pirates keep making it interesting, but they also keep winning.

The Cocoa Beach-area team defeated a tough Weston HS squad 15-14 this weekend to move to 3-0. All three victories have been close.

Head Coach Steve Roper said the team has shown great discipline in hanging on in the close games.

Brennan George had a massive game for the Pirates while Antonio Pizzatella caused problems as well. Still, Weston went up early, intercepting a pass for a try and then surprising the Pirates with a quick tape for a 14-0 lead.

But 15-year-old wing Ryan Falzoi chased after a kick to touch that everyone assumed was going out, and when it didn’t he dove on it to score. 

Then Elvis Espinal broke through and fought off two defenders to score in the corner. Brock Roper hit the touchline conversion and it was 14-12.

Phoenix, Trojans Win - Georgia Latest

Alpharetta Phoenix "A" and Lassiter Trojans were the big winners in Week 3 of the Georgia boys HS league.

Phoenix overcame injury problems to than put them down to 13 players at one point, and still won convincingly 62-0 over the Norsemen. Meanwhile, the Trojans overpowered Lambert away 57-5.

Roswell secured their first win of the season, overcoming Phoenix "B" 33-22. Senior scrumhalf Andrew Pretorius led the way with a strong mix of attacking runs and kicks to space. 

The other undefeated team in the league, Mill Creek, had the week off.

Torrey Pines Caps Huge Turnaround (Updated)

The Southern California Varsity Red league is all up for grabs after Torrey Pines rebounded from a bad loss to record an impressive victory.

Torrey Pines was undefeated going into last week's clash with Fallbrook, but were summarily thrashed 51-0. In their defense, they'd not played in a while due to a forfeit game, struggled with yellow cards, and were missing five starters due to injuries. The response by the Torrey Pines coaches was to remind the players that rugby is supposed, and also acknowledge that the players were likely tired after going straight from football to rugby. So Tuesday's practice was at the beach. The team loosened up, the injured players came back, and it was all just in time to take on undefeated Cathedral Catholic.