Royal Irish Win Muddy Clash with Penn
In one of the two games this weekend between very highly-ranked teams, Royal Irish defeated Penn HS in Indiana Super League conference play.
Danville Over Granite Bay in a Classic
In a game that lived up to the pre-game expectations, the Danville Oaks won the Northern California multi-school Varsity Gold championship 34-31 over Granite Bay.
Playing at Pat Vincent Field at St. Mary’s College, the #1-ranked HS club (Danville) and the #3 club (Granite Bay) played a hugely dramatic, and well-played final.
Phoenix Takes Georgie State Title
Alpharetta Phoenix settled who are the best team in Georgia by beating previously unbeaten Lassiter Trojans 27-19 in the Georgia State Championship Final on Friday night.
This avenged Phoenix’s close regular-season loss to Trojans and was a repeat of their win in last season’s Georgia final. This success gives Phoenix four three state championships in a row and should be a good boost as they head to the NIT in Charlotte in May.
Major HS Scores Latest
Here are some scores from some major Boys HS games around the nation:
Georgia State Final
Phoenix Alpharetta 27 Lassiter Trojans 19
Phoenix secured revenge for their only league loss of the season.
Northern California HS Club Finals
Danville (MS#1) 34 Granite Bay (MS#3) 31
This was a thrilling match. Danville ran out to a 10-0 lead, and then Granite Bay reeled off four spectacular tries to lead 24-10 at halftime. Danville fixed their ball-retention problems, scored four tries to lead 34-24. Granite Bay scored late, and had Danville pinned on their tryline at the end of the game. Danville hooker Lorenzo Richardson broke through to relieve pressure for Danville and they eventually kicked to touch to end the game.
Bishop O'Dowd 45 North Sacramento 31
Westlake Has a Target in Texas Playoffs
Westlake looks to be favored in the Texas HS playoffs this weekend, but this is a region always poised for an upset.
Kingwood came on strong late to make the playoffs, and Woodlands, and Lake Travis have also hit their form at the right time. All eyes are on Westlake, however.
"The team has held up great this year," said Westlake Head Coach Jason Spodick. "We've got a great group of young men committed to each other, even with the long layoffs. The second half of the season has been frustrating due to two of the last three matches being forfeited to us, so we've only played one match since March 12th."
Spodick would have been forgiven for worrying that his team was too rusty, but they actually got to play against Plano two weeks ago, and looked very strong winning 67-0.
Around the Country in Boys HS Games
Around the country in Boys HS Rugby.
Crossovers
Xavier (SS#5) plays Greenwich (SS#7), so that’s a big game. We preview it here.
Tennessee
It’s playoff time as the individual conferences start to find out who makes it to the state playoffs. Weather has played havoc with the season, but there’s hope things will be a bit nicer now.
Of the three conferences, West Tennessee, Middle Tennessee, and SMAC, it’s West Tenn. that looks to be the most competitive, with Christian Brothers (SS#49), Germantown, and PCA all thinking conference title.
Ranked Teams Clash in Utah
Competition is coming to a head in Utah as some top-ranked teams meet up this weekend.
Olympus, ranked #12 among single-schools, takes on Highland, ranked #39. Both are undefeated int the Wasatch Conference. With Herriman HS (SS #6) and Snow Canyon HS (SS #10) already having secured top spots in their conferences, neither Olympus nor Highland will want to take the lower seed and risk facing those other two in the state quarter finals.
The West Valley Warriors (MS #9) face Alta after losing to Lowland on Thursday.
Lowland went into the game 2-2 and West Valley were undefeated. But Lowland did well to weather the power running of players like 275-lb Tevita Tauelangi, 225-lb Jordan Lutui, and 215-lb flyhalf Himinai Tausinga, and spread the ball wide to make West Valley run.
Seeding the Pacific Invitational - Updated & Corrected
This article has been significantly changed due to the fast the tournament is already seeded and there's been a change of teams (which they didn't tell us about).
In a follow-up to Thursday’s article about seeding the Boys HS NIT single-school bracket, here’s a quick look at the Pacific Invitational to be held a week before in San Diego.
Eight teams are slated to participate, all eight are ranked by Goff Rugby Report. They are:
Back Bay (HS Club 7)
Danville (HS Club 1)
Fallbrook (Single-School 4)
Kahuku (Single-School 9)
Peninsula Green (Multi-School 18)
Red Mountain (Multi-School 4)
San Diego Mustangs (Multi-School 47 until a week ago)
Santa Monica (Multi-School 17)
The Mustangs dropped off last week but have been ranked all season until now.
Greenwich Visits Xavier with Much at Stake
It’s yet another showdown of top single-schools as #5 Xavier hosts #7 Greenwich.
This game has more to it than just some sort of tri-state bragging rights. The seedings for the Boys HS National Invitational Championship in Charlotte, NC could well be at stake.
First, though, the teams. Xavier comes off competitive 31-14 loss to #1 Gonzaga after a successful tour to the West Coast where they beat the San Diego Mustangs and lost to New Plymouth out of New Zealand.
Xavier brings a smart, aggressive attack to this week’s contest, with James Tweedy playing very well of late at flyhalf, and Matt Bergstol providing a physical presence up the middle.
Tennessee Teams Crawl Out of Winter, See Playoff's Shadow
The weather in Tennessee has been brutal and forced the cancelation of several games and a shift from playing two games against conference opponents to playing one.
Snow, ice, rain have all had their say, and it means the first part of the season has been depressingly short.
Still, the playoffs are on their way, and in this Tennessee opens up new playing opportunities for everyone. Higher-level teams have their championship to play for, but everyone plays for something, allowing teams that have struggled to see where they stack up against other teams that have struggled.
First comes the conference playoffs, and Tuesday South Doyle (ranked #21 by Goff Rugby Report as a single-school team) thumped Maryville 77-12 while Bearden also won their semi to make the final. South Doyle has been pretty dominant in the SMAC and looked the part
Oregon Latest, Union Wins Big
Union HS moved to the top of Oregon’s single-school league with a convincing 43-0 defeat of previously 5-0 Oregon City.
With the victory Union improves to 5-0 and is now only potentially worried about Newberg. At 4-0, Newberg has some big games coming up, including Oregon City on Saturday, and a shortened round-robin game with Union in May.
Against Oregon City, Union started out a little rusty after Spring Break.
“The boys were mentally just not sharp enough and were making basic errors,” said Coach David Curle. “Also Oregon City were pumped up for this game and really brought it.”
Florida Finals This Weekend
The Florida HS championship day is set for the International Polo Club in Wellington, Fla.
Weston will face Orlando in the championship game. Weston has a relentless and well-organized attack that is instilled with some little elements of unpredictability that could see them through. Their halfback combination of Alex Ruiz and Matthew Mairowitz is working very well together, but more importantly, they don’t seem to get rattled.
If anyone can rattle them it might well be Orlando, whose forward pack can control ball and thunder up the middle. They (just barely) corralled a speedy Riviera Beach team last week in the semis, but they did enough. Weston is perhaps a little more varied in their attack, but led by players like Lock Jimmy Davis and flanker Josue Ayala, if healthy, Orlando should be up for it.
S. Greenville Wins Big One, Looks to Next Big One
It’s a big weekend in South Carolina HS rugby as South Greenville takes on Chapin in a game that will decide who wins the Midlands Division, and in the Coast Division, School of the Arts and Bishop England clash to see who finishes 2nd.
South Greenville is feeling pretty good, coming off a 20-0 defeat of Greenville HS on a rainy Friday.
Tall flyhalf Hippolyte Houette, who moved to South Carolina from France with his family, was a big influence on the game as his goalkicking was part of the different. The 6-4 #10 slotted two difficult penalty goals to give South Greenville a 20-0 lead, and then he converted tries by Zantravius Wardlaw and lock Ebube David-Osuagwu - both from the touchline - to complete the scoring.
Scrumhalf Jackson Clark was the catalyst for the team, often zipping down the blind side to test the Greenville HS defense.
Aircraft Charter Solutions PoW - Donovan and Logan Ronan
Logan and Donovan Ronan compete in everything - they wrestle, they fight, they race, they see who can eat the most - they compete in everything, except one thing - rugby.
Even then, they do compete when it comes to who can train harder, who practices better, but the twin brothers and flanker for 5-1 Regis Jesuit are the consummate teammates on the field.
“They have completely embraced the team ethic we have,” said coach Brian Normile. “To the point of offering up a starting spot so another player could get a start they felt he deserved. They don’t care about glory, or scoring tries. They care about making tackles, wining rucks, and getting up and winning another ruck.”
2015 Boys HS Club Rankings Week 12
We shook things about a little bit in this week's HS Club Rankings. Weston, beating Naples soundly, moves way up. West Shore, Kingwood, LA, Santa Monica, and Peninsula Green all beat ranked teams. Hopkins beat a team we were expecting to rank, so they jump in at 19. We shuffled some California and North Carolina teams around. Ravenwood, out of Tennessee, and Hampton, out of Virginia, get a look.
