Gamebreakers - HS Boys This Week
It’s been a couple of weeks since we ran a Gamebreakers feature, so we go back a couple of weeks with our recognition of top players in Boys HS Rugby.
Beau Goudreau
The Chargers (Wisc.) center scored three tries for in a 32-19 win over Grafton, and in fact a couple of weeks before recorded another hat trick.
Chadi Abdalla
The hard-charging No 8 was a big part of Fort Hunt’s impressive semifinal win in Virginia.
St. Xavier Wins Kentucky
Saint Xavier (Kentucky) rugby capped off its most successful season, beating Trinity HS Sunday to in history by bringing home its 5th-straight Kentucky state championship.
The Tigers have now won six out of the seven state championships since the league began in 2010.
The weekend opened Saturday morning in Cherokee Park with a big victory over Central Kentucky in the semis. Central Kentucky is in its first year, and St. Xavier was just too skillful, and too experienced.
Chargers Continue Winning Ways in Wisconsin
The Chargers finished up their Wisconsin regular league season Monday with a 32-19 defeat of Grafton.
This follows on one of the Chargers' toughest games, a 17-12 defeat of Middleton.
Here's a look at the Chargers' games this month:
Chargers RFC - 56 Marquette University HS - 5
Matt Ruppel and Sean Mattek both scored two tries in this convincing win.
Chargers 42 Elkhorn Demon Elks 42-17
Beau Goudreau scored three tries for the Chargers, while Mattek added two more.
Mountain View Wins Idaho
Mountain View defeated Rocky Mountain 20-14 Saturday to win the Boys DI HS state title in Idaho.
Mountain View's teamwork proved to be too much for Rocky Mountain. All three tries were accomplished in the same fashion - using the backs to get into the Rocky Mountain 22, and then punching the ball ahead with the forwards in clinical fashion until they made the tryline.
"It was something we worked on," said Mountain View Coach Hamish Bell. "We wanted to make sure when we got into the 22 we were able to score. Our best drives combined our forwards and our backs supporting each other. We looked really good, and I put that down to a team effort."
Rocky Mountain kept within shouting distance with a penalty try after an offside in-goal, and then it was a case of Mountain View holding on.
Maryland Exiles Win State Club Title
The Maryland Exiles shut out West Carroll to garner some revenge for an earlier loss and in doing so won the Maryland state HS club championship.
West Carroll won a very close regular season matchup, and both teams looked strong coming of their semifinal wins.
Herriman Romps to Utah Final
In a matchup between two single-school heavyweights in Utah’s single school semifinals, Herriman remained undefeated in what has been a carbon copy in nearly every game this season – jumping out to a huge lead, and conceding tries after the subs ran on.
The game was a rematch of an early March scrimmage between the two which Herriman won 46-16, but this game appeared a bit different on paper as East had several key players who did not play in the first matchup and had been decimating everybody they had faced since, including a massive 43-15 victory over a much-improved Highland team. Herriman also had two starters who did not face the Leopards the first time around, so this game promised to have a little different flavor.
SoCal Final Down to Wire
On a weekend of drama in HS state championships, Southern California chimed in with one of their own.
In a dramatic, back-and-forth contest, Back Bay took the Southern California Boys HS club title 25-24 over the Coastal Dragons.
“It was a great game to watch I am sure, but not so great for the coaching staffs,” said Back Bay Coach Jeff Bonnett.
Coastal Dragons did a good job of negating some of the strengths of Back Bay - especially their skilled flyhalf Anton Grigoriou - while Back Bay keyed nicely on the Dragons midfield of Sean Lumkong and Justin Petersen. So that meant everyone else had to step up, and they did. No. 8 Sosefo Mailangi had a big game for Back Bay, while Coastal scrumhalf Patrick French was excellent for the Dragons.
SE Polk Wins 5th Iowa Title
The numbers don't lie - Southeast Polk is, in the last five years, 71-0-3 in the Iowa Youth Rugby Association Boys 2A competition, and once again emerged winners of the state championship this past weekend.
In Iowa, teams play 7s, meeting every week or two to play two games per team leading toward a championship tournament. It's a relatively unique approach, but one that has allowed the sport to grow in the state with teams associated with specific schools, and large crowds assembled for each tournament. And in the past five years, SE Polk has been at the top of heap.
Conestoga Impresses in Pa Final
Conestoga capped off an impressive run to win the Rugby Pennsylvania single-school championship, beating St. Joseph’s Prep Sunday 52-19.
Both teams won their semifinals on Saturday, but St. Joe’s had to really work for it, and came into the game perhaps a shade more tired than Conestoga. And the favorites made them pay, scoring four converted tries in the opening 15 minutes to put the game away early.
“We played a good game,” said Conestoga Head Coach Alex Johnson. “We played up to our ability level. I told the boys it was down to them how they wanted to perform, and to run with it, and they did.”
HS Nationals Matchups Confirmed
With this weekend's results finalizing a couple of seeds and qualifiers, here's the final list of teams and the Day One schedule for the Boys HS Rugby National Championships in Charlotte, NC.
The event, to be held at the Rugby Athletic Center in Charlotte, will kick off on Thursday, May 19 and will feature one game per teams for three straight days. (this has been updated with one change.)
Doylestown Dominates, Wins Pennsylvania
Doylestown capped off a superb Rugby Pa club season with a convincing 47-3 defeat of Downingtown to win the state championship and finalize a spot in the Boys HS Rugby National Championships.
“We went into the game wanting to defend better close to the ruck, and force them to go wide, and that’s what we did,” said Doylestown Coach Mike McCandless. “It worked. They had to attack further out and we held them in check.
Close Games in Washington Semis
The Rainier Highlanders and Liberty Patriots will face off for the Rugby Washington DI final after both somehow survived tense semifinals this weekend.
It could hardly have been any closer for these teams. Liberty and Chuckanut reacquainted themselves with their rivalry, and battled through a thriller. Liberty had control early and scored three tries to take an 18-3 lead. Wing Nick Farmer and props David Ainuu and Tony Vea went over, with scrumhalf Noah Wright adding a penalty goal. In answer, Chuckanut got only the one penalty goal from Calum Reid.
But Liberty got hit with a yellow card in the second half, and during that time Chuckanut took advantage, with Jack Wendling and Ben Broselle scoring, with Reid adding one conversion to make it 18-15 for Liberty.
Wild Late Surge Puts East Through in Colorado
East HS pulled off something of a shock result in beating Colorado Springs in the Rugby Colorado’s Boys DI semifinals Saturday.
The fact that East won wasn’t so much of a shocker, but the score - 55-15 - was. East Head Coach Bill Baer said the game went as expected for about 45 minutes or so, but then it got weird.
“It was a tough game as we expected,” said Baer. “We scored, then they scored, and we went back and forth.”
In fact, Colorado Springs led 17-10 with about 20 minutes to go. East would score to tie the game, and then from the restart, center Adam Leonard caught the ball and took off, powering through several Grizzlies tacklers to chug 60 meters for a try.
Down to 2 in Va
Forth Hunt and Prince William will meet for the Virginia state championship after both clubs won their semifinals Saturday.
For Fort Hunt, it was just another hugely impressive performance, as they slammed Newport News 59-0.
Led by the No. 8-scrumhalf partnership of Chadi Abdalla and Conor McManus, Fort Hunt had the run of play all day. The team used more of a kicking game in this game, opening up their toolbox a little as the season progresses.
“We have definitely been kicking a lot more,” said Coach Dale Roach. “Early on we wanted to work on our skills with ball in hand, but the kids are improving every week.”
Meanwhile, Prince William handled the Hampton Heat 33-7. Coach Jon Jacobs said the key to his team’s improvement over the season has been on-field leadership.
Highlanders Win NC
The Chapel Hill Highlanders are the North Carolina Boys HS Club champions after they beat the Union County Lions 25-12 Saturday.
The victory secures the Highlanders a place in the HS Club tier of the Boys HS Rugby National Championships in Charlotte this coming week, while Union County will play in the Combined Bracket at the same event.
Chapel Hill used a smart kicking game to keep Union County in their 22. The Highlanders chase was very good, and as often as not they not only pinned the Lions back, but poached the ball, as well.
