Statement Weekend in Florida?
Where the pecking order stands in Florida's high school league could be a bit clearer after this weekend.
First off, let's look at the standings:
North Carolina Looks to Single-School League Semis
North Carolina's single-school season is almost at its culmination with this weekend's semifinals taking us one step closer to a champion.
Last week was NC's bye week designed to handle postponements, but the weather has been kind to the region and no one had to make up games, which was a bit of a surprise. All that meant that the top four teams were able to rest up and prepare for what promises to be a tight final couple of weekends.
It's worth noting that the four teams in the semifinals have exactly one loss among them.
#1 Seed Hough (6-0) vs #4 Laney HS (5-1).
Hough allowed just 26 points over their six games, and it's that stingy defense that should see them through. On the converse, newcomers Laney HS didn't score much, but that meant they were able to battle it out in close games.
Fallbrook vs St. Augustine Decides Who makes SCIRF Final
Who plays Cathedral Catholic in the SCIRF Boys final will be determined this Saturday as the two teams with only one loss face off.
That one loss for Fallbrook and for St. Augustine was, of course, to Cathedral (who are 7-0).
This promises to be a tight game, with the two teams having had very similar results against the same opponents.
Fallbrook has a points difference of +195 in six non-forfeit games and St. Augustine has a +201. Against Cathedral, Fallbrook lost by 24 and the Saints lost by … 23. St. Augustine has the best points scored per game, and Fallbrook the best defensive points allowed per game. You get the idea.
GRR HS Club Rankings Week 3
It was a quite slow week in HS club rugby, but we will see more games as February progresses.
Not a lot of changes, but Jacksonville and Elsie Allen join the Top 50. We don't see any of the results from the rest of the week enough to change rankings to any significant degree (or at all).
So we'll just wait a bit.
(Quick reminder on Woodlands—they are also fielding a school team of Woodlands HS players in the Texas single-school team, but we are only tracking and ranking their club team. So if you notice that on January 28 Strake Jesuit beat Woodlands, but that was the Woodlands High School team, not the Woodlands club team.)
Marin Faces Eastside on Tour
In a preseason game for the Washington-based team, the Eastside Lions made the trip down south to Northern California to play the Marin Highlanders.
This was the second year in a row that the Lions played Marin to start their season. It is tough to find practice fields, let along game fields, in Washington until March comes around, so this trip is hugely valuable to Eastside.
The first half was a defensive battle, and the Highlanders entered halftime up only 3-0 thanks to a penalty goal from flyhalf Ian Ross.
GRR HS School Team Rankings Week 3
We expected a relatively quiet week because North Carolina had an off week and other leagues haven't started yet, but ...
Bad weather postponed most of the single-school games in Texas and that slowed it all down even more. We're interested in Allen HS and could see them coming up, but we needed to see them play St. Thomas, and that game got frozen out.
We do have a move from Cathedral, and there's an interesting debate going on as to which is the stronger competition, the SCIRF or the SoCal Varsity league. We'd like to see them united, of course, and because we don't we have to sort of guess. Actually, it's less about guessing and more about tracking what third-party observers think and what outside games they can play.
We do get the feeling that San Clemente is strong and they get a good bump up.
De La Salle Back on Front Foot
De La Salle opened their season in Northern California with a victory over Motherlode.
Played in the rain at Saint Mary's College, the game was rife with early-season mistakes, but also played with plenty of effort.
De La Salle dropped a lot of balls and weren't too happy about it, either. Still, DLS kept at it and worked hard, taking chances. Overall it worked out even as Motherlode opted to go to the boot to pin De La Salle back in their territory.
De La Salle kept working on trying to get 50-22s, but the ball tended to roll a direction they didn't want.
Contenders Emerging in SoCal
San Clemente is atop the Southern California Single-School league after beating San Juan in convincing fashion.
San Clemente's depth allowed them to keep their standard up against a San Juan team that couldn't quite keep pace. Brayden Berry was very good both in his play and as a leader. After San Clemente subbed both of their captains off at halftime it was Berry who took on the mantle of the captaincy and did well as the changed lineup outscored San Marcos 20-0 in the second half to win it 59-0.
The prop also showed off his kicking skills with the final conversion of the game.
"There were a few things we learned about ourselves that we need to polish up," said Head Coach Stuart Proctor.
Cathedral Catholic Gets By St. Augustine in Holy Bowl
The Holy Bowl is an intense rivalry between San Diego high schools Cathedral Catholic and St Augustine; it's been contested in many sports for over 70 years, and in rugby for 14, including Friday night.
The Saints jumped out to an early 7-0 lead after two minutes when their speedy center Caleb Aguirre broke through the Dons defense for a long run. The Dons defense was able to catch him five meters from paydirt, but St. Augustine recycled quickly and over they went. Lucca Rohrer converted and the Saints led 7-0. Moments later Rohrer slotted a penalty to make it 10-0.
The Dons fought back with Lewis Case scoring the first of his two tries. This one came off a ruck and Case sliced through the Saints defense. Spencer Huntley to make it 10-7. Huntley then banged over a penalty to tie the game at 10-10 after 20 minutes.
HS Games This Weekend: School Team Showdowns
Some teams are kicking off their season this week, with Vienna playing Springfield/West End in Virginia being a really early runout.
Meanwhile we're now into the heart of the Texas season and Strake Jesuit is at Dallas Jesuit—that's one to keep a close eye on.
Dallas Jesuit, Strake, St. Thomas to 2-0 in Texas
Florida's league moves along with Okapi taking on Wellington.
Two Weeks Left To Apply for HS National Championships
Two weeks remain until the deadline for applications for the Boys HS National Championships.
The HSNC will be held in Elkhart, Ind. at the Moose Rugby Grounds Thursday, May 25 through Saturday, May 27, 2023.
GRR HS School Team Rankings Week 2
The School team season is a bit hotter than the HS Club season so far, and that's generally been the trend the last few years.
What with the single-school leagues in SoCal and North Carolina that finish up in February, and Texas's new single-school league, and the fact that these teams can get moving a little faster than HS clubs can, we just have more results to track.
So expect a little more movement in the school rankings for a while. And expect, also, for some of the teams that play only in the winter to move up as they play, and then get overtaken as other teams play. As always, teams that play more outside their immediate region, or are in a position for there to be a connection with teams outside their region (they play a team that plays elsewhere) will have more data in the rankings and usually move up as a result.
North Carolina Single-School Seasons Enters Playoffs
North Carolina's single-school season has its semifinalists set.
Hough won comfortably over Providence to cap off an undefeated regular season.
Beyond Bembry scored three tries in the victory with Porter Kuebler and Tyler Valverde scoring two each.
Zach Colson, Milo Portilla, Colby Marr, and Dylan Natal all scored tries and Colson kicked 10 of 11 conversions.
North Carolina limits the official reporting of a score to a 35-point winning margin. Of the Huskies' six games, one was a forfeit, and four found themselves bumping up against that 35-point limit. That included last Friday's game, which goes into the books 42-7.
GRR HS Club Rankings Week 2
Not a lot of movement here and we won't see a ton of it until more HS club teams get playing.
We do have Florida, of course, and that's nice. Tempe, Woodlands, and Marin move up.
Okapi might move up—we just want to see where Gibbons is before we get caught up in Okapi's defeat of them. Right now we keep Okapi at 14 but this weekend's result might still have an influence in later weeks.
The GRR Rankings are brought to you by Next Phase Rugby, a USA-made and maintained app that connects college rugby programs and HS rugby players. It's a great way for college programs to find players they wouldn't know otherwise, and a great way for high schoolers to create and finalize their best college prospects. Go to nextphaserugby.com to download the app.
Torrey Pines Over Carlsbad in SoCal
Torrey Pines defeated Carlsbad in the meeting last year’s SoCal single-school champion and last year’s SoCal multi-school champions.
Played as a curtain-raiser for the game between UCLA and Stanford, the game was a contrast in styles; Carlsbad used its size and power, and Torrey Pines looked to go wide and kick to space to use their speed.
It worked well for Torrey. Early on Carlsbad got into penalty trouble and Torrey Pines used those penalties to set two tries and a 14-0- lead.
Prop Matthew Staycer then broke through for a 40-meter gallop and while he was caught, No. 8 Jacob Jaffe was there in support to help send the ball through the hands to set up the score in the corner.
