HS Boys

Gonzaga Holds Off Jesuit in Sacramento

Gonzaga HS defeated Jesuit of Sacramento Thursday night in the first game of Gonzaga's short Northern California tour.

These two school teams have a long and storied history. For five years in a row from 2013 through 2017 they met in the Boys HS National Championships Single-School bracket final, with Gonzaga winning three and Jesuit winning two.

Gonzaga arrived in Sacramento Wednesday night and needed to start strong to shake off the travel; they didn't so much. Jesuit battled hard and took a lead of 8-0 going into the halftime break. It was rainy and muddy and it took a while for Gonzaga to figured out the best game plan to handle that. 

Once Gonzaga started to kick for field position, and garner a couple of 50-22s (kick from your own half, bounce it into touch inside the opposing 22 and you get the lineout throw). 

Cross-Border Games Big Part of HS Weekend

Cross-border action is ramping up this weekend.

Gonzaga is in California. Regis Jesuit is going to Arizona. Three Texas teams are in Louisiana. SLUH is in Indiana. HSE is at St. Xavier. Xavier is at Fort Hunt. St. Ignatius is meeting LaSalle in Pittsburgh. 

Jesuit of Sacramento hosts Gonzaga and then two days later plays De La Salle in a game that decides who is in the top two school teams in NorCal. They will play a crossover championship with the top SoCal Youth Rugby school teams. Those teams are Torrey Pines and San Clemente, and they play this weekend.

There's also the SoCal Varsity Multi-School finals, which will be a semifinal-final affair.

GRR HS Club Rankings Week 7

You win you lose you win you lose ... it doesn't get you anywhere.

That was a classic quote we remember from some NHL hockey player many years ago. It's quite deep in its simplicity. For us in the rankings we're battling through a series of wins and losses alternating through the mid-level of the rankings. This might seem like some of the teams in the #10-through-#25 area don't actually move, for us it does a lot ... it gets us somewhere.

GRR HS School Team Rankings Week 7

What a weekend!

So many results forced us to shift things around. 

Top 10

It is clear that Jesuit, De La Salle, and St. Francis in Northern California are very close. We're got Jesuit at #10 right now because of their latest win over St. Francis (and despite their losses in Southern California) but it's a shaky #10 right now. The Marauders play De La Salle this weekend. 

Xavier bumps up after a very clinical win and there's talk that this is a strong Xavier team. Georgetown Prep never goes to HS Nationals (which is too bad; they should) but they play in a very tough league. This past weekend they played Rugby PA school team St. Joe's and won fairly comfortably, and with some of the other teams near #10 losing or not playing, they get a bump to #9.

Xavier Impresses vs St. Augustine

Xavier HS defeated St. Augustine High School in South Jersey to open up the season for both school teams.

The game was highlighted by five tries from player of the game Padraig Long. The Xavier JVs beat the Hermits JVs 75-0.

In the 1st-side match the Knights attacked from the opening whistle and looked sharp throughout the game with a defense that never faltered.

“Medhi was an absolute force out there,” said assistant coach Ski Bailey, referring to junior flanker Medhi Merah, who scored two tries. “We implemented a new system and the boys took to it like ducks to water.” 

Bailey also said that Xavier's defense was very strong as were their scrums and lineouts.

Rye, Raptor Tie in Tennessee

In an intriguing inter-state meeting Rye HS of New York tied Raptor Rugby of Tennessee 10-10.

It was a good challenge for the defending Tennessee state champs and one of the top teams in New York.

The match started well for the Raptors as they took an early lead through some nifty back play between sophomore Eli  Baumann and junior Max Orefice. They linked up with Sam Jones who touched down in the corner.

Shortly after that, Raptor captain Nicholas Orefice injured and had to leave. 

Lindenwood Tournament: Who Showed Well

The Lindenwood Tournament in St. Charles, Mo. provided an excellent buildup weekend for teams in the middle of the country.

Scores include:

901 33 St. Thomas Aquinas 26
KC Jr. Blues 27 SLUH 5
901 36 Bixby 17
St. Thomas Aquinas 10 SLUH 5
KC Jr. Blues 87 Lindbergh 7 

The Junior Blues put together two good victories. They got two tries from Kaden Critten against St. Louis University HS, and tries from Keller Taylor, Kade Williams, and Lance Nauer to win 27-5.  SLUH Coach Brian Corrigan said the side looked rusty, as expected, and giving up a 99-meter interception try didn't help.

On Sunday KC exploded for 87 against Lindebergh, with Aiden Chavez scoring five tries, and Critten bagging another brace. Conor Sexton also score two, with Neil Carmen, Nolan Dingley, and Taylor all touching down once.

A Ruggerfest Roundup

Teams from all over flooded Charlotte, NC for the Carolina Ruggerfest as a warmup event but also a cap to the winter season.

Teams such as Oceanside from South Carolina, and South Meck from North Carolina, used the tournament as a way to finish up their winter single-school season. Other North Carolina clubs or cold-weather clubs used it as a warmup.

And it was warm, so there's that.

Around NorCal in HS Boys Rugby

Here's a quick look at what went on in Northern California boys HS rugby as we saw several all-ranked meetings.

Granite Bay 22-0 SFGG

This was a difficult game to play, especially with Granite Bay making an early start to get to San Francisco. It was windy and hailed through a chunk of the second half. Granite Bay ran out to a 12-0 lead with the wind at their backs and SFGG Head Coach Tony Wells said he felt his side had played well to that point. They had chances in the second half, "but we didn't capitalize with the wind."

Granite Bay scored two later tries to win 22-0. 

"The boys persevered," said GB Head Coach Chris Miller. "Tough conditions, formidable opponent, good challenges for my boys to work through."

Last-Minute Try Puts Berks Past Aspetuck

Berks County defeated Aspetuck 26-20 Saturday in an early non-conference tilt between the Pennsylvania and Connecticut-based HS clubs.

Both sides were missing some established starters, but that just gave other players an opprtunity to make more of an impact. This was a see-saw battle that saw six lead changes throughout the game, with the final lead change came on the last play of the game.

Aspetuck was led by center, Jason Champagne, who had a pair of tries on the day, and was a threat every time he had ball in hand. The Aspetuck forwards played strong possession rugby and relentless defense all through the game. 

HS Rugby: Gonzaga, Ignatius, Jesuit Sacramento All Win

Three well-regarded Boys single-school teams logged notable victories this weekend.

#1 Gonzaga

Gonzaga defeated #14 LaSalle out of Pennsylvania 62-10 on a very windy day at LaSalle's home field.

"Defensively we were happy," said Gonzaga Head Coach Peter Baggetta. "We gave away some easy penalties and a try late. LaSalle's field is really nice and wide but the wind made it challenging to use that width."

LaSalle has scheduled some tough opposition and it looking to move up a level in play. They will have learned a lot from this meeting.

"It was a good runout for us," added Baggetta, who got some good leadership and overall play from No. 8 Burke Carroll and scrumhalf Joey Reis. "We have a relatively young team so the maturity those guys bring to the game really helps."

Ruggerfest, Lindenwood Tourney Highlight HS Games

Wow, OK so we have over 80 games this week.

Many of them are shorter games in the Carolina Ruggerfest, which we will be attending, so if you Alex Goff there, come say hi.

But that's not the only tournament going on. Lindenwood University hosts their smaller tournament, too.

At Carolina, there are several ranked teams and teams hoping to get a spot at National Championships. St. Edward out of Ohio, locals Charlotte Cardinals and Charlotte Tigers, Vienna out of Virginia, Key Biscayne out of Florida, Rebels and Lapharetta out of Georgia, and Wando and Oceanside out of South Carolina to name just a few. This is less about winning a trophy and more about playing teams you don't know. Vienna vs Key Biscayne is a game we're very interested to see.

GRR HS School Team Rankings Week 6

Yes we're a bit late with this one.

Not too many massive changes, but teams that play and win move up. St. Thomas in Texas is still getting really good results and moves up 12 spots. Bixby of course moves up after a second-straight good showing, this time beat Aquinas. Georgetown Prep also moves up.

Expect some shifting back and forth, and expect the Ra Puriri tournament that kicks off Utah play to see their results step away from their influence as the regular season starts.

Urban Rugby Championship Massive Celebration of Rugby's Reach

The Urban Rugby Championship braved cold and rain to complete its second event, and it was pretty special.

Seven inner-city rugby programs, all predominantly (but not exclusively) African-American, assembled in Los Angeles over the past weekend. Like many other games played around the LA Sevens, this event was moved to a venue with an artificial surface due to the enormously heavy rains hitting the region. In this case it was the Rancho Cienega Recreation Center on Obama Boulevard in LA, which featured a good field for the rugby and, charitably, a gym where the players could rest up and try to get dry in between games.

Tournament Sponsors: AEG Rugby; The Atlas Foundation; US Rugby Foundation; San Diego Legion Foundation; USA Youth & High School Rugby; Rugby LA; The Todd Clever Foundation