Athletic Timber Creek Makes Splash in Texas
Rugby Texas DII Boys HS has a new cowboy in town as Timber Creek has begun to roll through that competition.
The new school team, coached by Shon Husband, has powered past its initial DII opposition, and even beat ranked DI team St. Pius X (albeit, not the Pius 1st team).
“We started with two players who had played rugby before,” said Husban. “They’d practiced with another team in the area, and wanted to start a team at Timber Creak.”
Those players contacted Husband, who was known in the area as a good rugby coach, and Husband put it back on the players.
MAPL Latest - Round 1
The first weekend of the Mid-Atlantic Premier League is in the books and already the competition for top high schools out of Virginia, DC, and Pennsylvania is bearing fruit.
Everyone is looking to test themselves outside of their league competition, and that's the reason for the MAPL. This week, Fort Hunt beat West Shore convincingly. It was a tough early-season game for West Shore as they are still building their team, while Fort Hunt has played several games already. It's likely West Shore will be stronger in the next few weeks.
Doylestown Shocks Gonzaga
In a major upset in the high school rugby scene, Doylestown defeated Gonzaga 43-31 Sunday in the opening weekend of the new Mid-Atlantic Premier League.
Aquinas Wins Two in Oklahoma
St. Thomas Aquinas of Kansas swept two games against the top two teams in Oklahoma over the weekend.
STA defeated Bixby 27-7 on Saturday and then Union HS 15-7 on Sunday.
No. 8 Ryan Jurcziak was dominant in the lineouts for St. Thomas, winning his own team's ball and stealing the opposition's, as well. The junior also scored a try against Bixby and was active all around the field.
The game against Union was a scrappy affair with many penalties, but with a good young tight five, Aquinas held on.
Dramatic Varsity White Ending as Los Al Downs UC
Los Alamitos HS scored at the last second to defeat University City and win the Southern California Varsity White championship this weekend.
Varsity White is for single-school teams that are allowed to use players from other schools as long as a) the other school doesn't have a rugby team, and b) at least 75% of the team is from one school.
NorCal Top 5 Latest
Peninsula Green and SFGG won key games in Northern California's Top 5 division.
Pen Green defeated a very tough CK McClatchy team 31-12 to move to 2-0.
It took Pen Green about 20 minutes to get their game moving, but once they did, they put together some effective phase rugby.
Alex Lopeti was superb for Peninsula Green, making tackles, winning rucks, and testing CK with some snappy running.
Pen Green also won the JV game, but lost the Varsity B game. It was, overall, a very good day for Peninsula Green rugby as the program also saw two alumni, Siaosi Mahoni and David, play for the USA in a win over Chile.
Jesuit Holds Off Mother Lode
Jesuit of Sacramento moved to 2-0 in the NorCal Premier boys HS league after a tough 37-12 defeat of Mother Lode.
Katy Finishes Strong v St. Thomas
St Thomas High School of Houston traveled to the #10-ranked HS club Katy this weekend.
A well-drilled, powerful team, Katy was tested by St. Thomas but managed to pull away in the closing minutes.
St. Thomas has been struggling to find solid ground in attack and defense and entered and came into the game 2-2. The Eagles were also minus several regular varsity players. In spite of the many hurdles, St. Thomas ramped up the intensity, but Katy exploited errors and scored eight tries to St. Thomas's four.
Cumberland Valley Shuts Out Georgetown Prep
Cumberland Valley of Pennsylvania opened up their 2017 spring season on the campus of Mount Saint Mary's University, and logged an impressive victory over Georgetown Prep.
With the bells of the seminary at MSM ringing through the air, Cumberland shut out Georgetown Prep 29-0 in a game shortened by a thunderstorm.
CV was on defense a good portion of the early going, and defended impressively. But while the Pennsylvania team was able to steal possession at the breakdown, handling errors left some scoring chances begging.
But as they settled down, the space opened up wide and Cumberland Valley was able to fun in five tries.
Torrey Pines Wins SoCal Varsity Red
In an excellent showcase of high school rugby in Southern California, Torrey Pines defeated La Costa Canyon Saturday night to take the SoCal Varsity Red title.
Varsity Red is for fully-100% single-school teams that have in-school sanctioning. Torrey Pines and LCC had met in the regular season - the final game of the regular season, in fact - two weeks ago, and LCC had come away with a 14-13 victory. Last week, La Costa Canyon beat St. John Bosco convincingly to make the final, while Torrey Pines needed overtime to get past Mira Costa.
Rankings Clash - Pen Green v CK in NorCal
The Northern California Premier Varsity League is split into two halves, with the Premier on one side and the Top 5 on the other.
While conventional wisdom tells us that the Premier side is the stronger of the two, the Top 5 has some very, very capable teams. And they’ve already proven that. CK McClatchy almost beat Granite Bay and SFGG tied that same Grizzlies team. McClatchy pushed Jesuit to 48-40 while Peninsula Green scored 35 on Danville (in a loss, but still).
Last week, Pen Green beat Los Gatos United, but it was 17-14, which just goes to show that the teams within the Top 5 are pretty close, too.
Which brings us to this weekend, with McClatchy playing Peninsula Green in a game that could go a long way to telling us who is the best among that Top 5 group.
Boys HS Games Feb 23-26
Several ranked teams get going this weekend, with the Mid-Atlantic Premier League, one of a couple of cross-border leagues that have spring up.
Gonzaga, now ranked #2 after a small shakeup in the single-school rankings Boys Single-School Rankings Week #6, will host West End and Doylstown in the first weekend of matches that launch the MAPL. Fort Hunt, ranked #3 among HS clubs, gets involved too.
Allen Eagles Lead Tight DFW Conference
Familiar names dot the top of the Rugby Texas conferences, but Allen HS might be a newer name to most.
While Katy, Cy Fair, The Woodlands, Lake Travis, and Westlake are all leading their conferences (or close to it), Allen has moved to 2-0-1 after a tie with Jesuit and wins over the Dallas Harlequins Colts and Rock Rugby.
“We’re off to a pretty good start,” said Head Coach Kelly Meek. “We’re excited about our backline. For us the bug thing has been that we have been able to have a JV team the last couple of years. That helps solidify our Varsity team as those players get older.”
Allen could well be 3-0 if they had edged past Jesuit. Meek said his team played well, and learned a little about letting in somewhat soft tries.
Rugby Oklahoma Latest - Outside Visitor
Oklahoma’s HS league has been on essentially dominated by Union HS in recent years, but the competition is getting better.
Leading the way is Bixby, which started their season last week with a 59-5 win over Bartlesville. Thursday they tied Yukon, but that was just a curtain-raiser to this weekend’s clash with visiting St. Thomas Aquinas from the Kansas City area.
“We look OK this year,” said Bixby Head Coach Chris. Always have athletes, and we have a little bit of experience.”
Bixby’s forward pack is strong and runs the ball well, and with prop Cody Adams coming back from wrestling (where he’s one of the top-ranked 220-pounders in the state) they will get stronger.
Boys Single-School Rankings Week #6
There's been a change in the top spot in the Goff Rugby Report HS Boys Single-School rankings.
You'd expect there to be. While Gonzaga played Gregory the Great in an open-subs scrimmage (and won), the #1 team didn't play a major team this week, and Jesuit of Sacramento did, beating top-ranked HS club team Danville. When you beat the best you get rewarded, and Jesuit moves to #1.
