Phoenix Downs South Doyle
Phoenix Rugby wrapped up a successful weekend with a league win over Titans United and then a victory over visiting South Doyle, the defending Tennessee state champion.
Against South Doyle, Phoenix opened strongly and camped out inside South Doyle's 22. South Doyle's defense held for a while, but eventually Phoenix center Tim Voin capped off a nice backline move to touch down. With fullback Ollie Kennett's conversion, Phoenix led 7-0.
That was how the first half ended. Phoenix had other opportunities to score but on penalties opted to kick for touch and take the lineout. South Doyle stymied those chances, and in the second half, the Phoenix players decided to opt for a kick for posts on penalties. Kennett connected on a penalty to make it 10-05, and while Doyle replied immediately with a try, Phoenix then started to expand their lead.
Deep South Latest
St. Paul’s moved to 2-0 in the Deep South HS league with a 29-14 defeat of NIceville out of Florida’s panhandle.
Niceville had beaten Brother Martin the previous week and gave the defending regional champs some trouble, and even led early in the game.
“We had difficulty reading the ref and figuring out his calls,” said captain Christian Jarrett.
Fullback Chuck Rowbatham helped his squad regain momentum with a nicely-take drop goal, and he also added a long-range try to help his squad regain the lead. Two late tries put it away for St. Paul’s.
Also victorious this weekend was Jesuit HS New Orleans, which beat West Jefferson 10-5 in a game called early due to excessive grouchiness.
SoCal Varsity Blue Latest
Point Loma has clinched 1st in the Southern California Varisty Blue San Diego conference with a 36-27 defeat of Valhalla.
The victory put Point Loma at 5-0 and Valhall finished 4-2.
LCC, Torrey Pines Win in SoCal Varsity Red
La Costa Canyon defeated Cathedral Catholic 15-12 Saturday to improve to 4-0 Southern California’s Varsity Red Division.
Previously undefeated Cathedral drops to 3-1. The game was very tight all the way through, with both sides getting chances to score. The different, said LCC Head Coach Michael French, was that his La Costa players’ made decisions that worked.
“This was a tough game; half the boys on each team know each other, so there’s a lot of respect between the teams,” said French. “We came down to one or two decisions our guys made that turned out to be the right ones.”
The key period of the game came when La Costa Canyon went down to 13 players due to two yellow cards.
Honey Badgers Clinch 1st
The University City Honey Badgers clinched 1st place in the Southern California Varsity White division's San Diego Conference, beating Rancho Bernardo 20-12 Friday night.
Rancho Bernardo came into the game 3-1 and had a shot to take 1st from 4-0 UC, and the game certainly lived up to its importance, as Rancho put UC under plenty of pressure.
SoCal Playoff Spots Up for Grabs
Here's where we are in the Southern California Boys school leagues as we come down to the final weeks:
Varsity Red
Who finishes first will likely be decided Saturday as 3-0 Cathedral plays 3-0 La Costa Canyon. The losing team will have to worry about the winner of Torrey Pines and Del Norte.
For example, if Cathedral loses to LCC, then LCC will be 4-0, Cathedral 3-1. And if Torrey Pines beats Del Norte, then Torrey Pines will also be 3-1. If Del Norte beats TP, then Del Norte will be 3-1-1 with LCC left on the schedule.
So it could all be decided this weekend … or not. Most likely, four teams will enter the final two weeks with a shot at playing in the final.
Varsity White
Inland
Tough South Carolina Opens This Weekend
South Carolina’s Boys HS league starts up this weekend with a full slate of games.
Among the notable matchups, Chapin takes on defending state champion South Greenville. South Greenville was an experienced squad last season, and remains so this year, although several seniors have graduated. Chapin, as always, is a contender.
Wando, runner-up in 2015, will face Aiken, and Greenville HS plays Irmo.
NorCal HS, Youth Kick Off at KOT
The Kickoff Tournament in Sacramento gets the HS and younger seasons going in Northern California.
The tournament, thanks to grants and donations, has been able to refurbish the fields at Cordova HS in Rancho Cordova, Calif. The fields are in excellent shape and as a result, despite some HS teams holding their own preseason events, the KOT has added teams from last year.
Seven teams play in the Varsity Gold Division. Some will play three 30-minute games, and some will play two 45-minute games. The aim of the tournament is to provide teams and players with preseason game time - there is no championship - so teams are given 90 minutes of game time.
Jesuit of Sacramento heads up the list in the Boys Varsity Gold, and the Marauders will also field a B sideband two frosh-soph teams.
Valhalla Norsemen Rampage Through SoCal Blue
The San Diego Conference of the SoCal Varsity Blue seemed settled after the first weekend, when Valhalla dropped a 12-5 decision to San Marcos, but in fact things were just getting started.
Now more than a month later, San Marcos seems to be in trouble as they forfeited this coming weekend’s game, and it’s Valhalla poised to win the conference if they beat Point Loma. Since that loss, Valhalla has gone 4-0, winning games by an average score of 40-11. Lew Bore, who coaches the Valhalla boys alongside Tamamalosi Dino and Faataape Lee-Noa under the eye of coaching mentor and New Zealander Andy Seeley, said it was his fault for the early-season loss.
Pleasanton Starts Strong in NorCal
While most Northern California HS teams have been getting one or two preseason games in, or are waiting for the Kickoff Tournament in Sacramento, Pleasanton has been very busy, playing and beating five teams so far.
In fact, those games haven’t really been close. Pleasanton has defeated Marin, Bishop O’Dowd, Bellarmine, Berkeley, and Clayton Valley, with Berkeley getting within 28 points at 38-10, and the rest beaten by larger margins.
Several players have already showed potential this winter. Inside center Jack Reynolds, in his third season as a starter, scored three tries against Berkeley and the next day scored three against Clayton Valley.
But the future Cal Poly Mustang isn’t the only talent on the squad.
Red Mountain Favored in Arizona
The Rugby Arizona season started this past weekend with Blackbirds beating Desert Vista 45-7 and Scottsdale downing El Mirage 36-19.
Defending champion Red Mountain didn’t get to play their game as Salpointe forfeited, but it’s fair to say that Red Mountain is, once again, the team to beat.
The league looks more competitive this season than last, if only because Scottsdale and Tempe are running two separate teams again. With their numbers up, quality should be up, too. Desert Vista looked to be an up-and-comer, and may well still be, but their opening loss to Blackbirds indicates there could be more parity this year.
Rancho Bernardo Ready for Rugby-Football Double
Rancho Bernardo may have lost their opening league game in the SoCal Varsity White San Diego division, but since then, it’s been nothing but win.
After the opening loss to Mira Mesa 29-19, the Broncos have defeated Mission Vista, San Pasqual, and, most recently, Alta Vista.
The reason for that first loss is easy to see, too. Rancho Bernardo won the state Division III-A football championship this past December, with many of their rugby team - such as their top two tacklers - a key part of that. The Mira Mesa rugby game was played the day before the football championship game, so, obviously, Rancho Bernardo was missing some starters.
Among them, flanker and football linebacker Devin Dunn, No. 8 and football defensive end Wes Anderson, and scrumhalf and football running back/defensive back Nathan Lovato.
Orlando Starts Strong
Orlando has enjoyed a nice start in the Florida Youth Rugby Boys HS DI, beating both Naples and West Pines but significant margins.
Even in chilly wind (chilly for Florida, anyway), they handled the ball well. West Pines was without their superb flyhalf, Martin Mairowitz, but still a 38-5 scoreline is impressive.
Orlando Coach Chris Quigley said West Pines was very strong in the rucks and No. 8 Chase Shor-Haskin was a handful.
“The score did not reflect how competitive the game was,” he countered. “They were a big physical team with powerful runners.”
And yet Orlando won comfortably. No. 8 Ieuan Nation had an excellent game.
“Simply put it was the most dominating performance that I seen from him yet,” said Quigley. “He has been playing for four years with us and his fitness and physicality were off the charts for this game.”
2016 Boys HS Club Rankings Week 1
Today we debut the 2016 Boys HS Club rankings, and we've got a lot of rugby to play before thesr things are perfected.
Right now, they are based on a couple of early results, plus where we think some of the other teams are this coming year. One of the complications for us is Southern California, in that some teams in the 1st half of the season fit the definition of a multi-school club team, but they then split off to make a different club. So, we decided to rank the teams playing now, but we might end up ranking clubs that aren't playing right now.
Gamebreakers - HS Boys This Week
We're back with our Gamebreakers feature, and this week's list of high school boys who made an impact for their teams.
If you think someone should be recognized, let us know.
Ryan James
The Cathedral Catholic back scored two tries in his team’s crucial 31-12 defeat of St. Augustine.
James Baere
The Torrey Pines flanker scored the game-winning try and kicked a penalty and four conversions for 16 points in his team’s 41-36 defeat of Fallbrook.
Gunnar Kissman
The Mira Costa flanker dominated the possession game for the Mustangs in their game against fellow undefeated team St. John Bosco, securing restarts, scoring tries, and setting up teammates.
