HS Boys

Gamebreakers - HS Boys This Week

With five Regional Cup Tournament all-star events this past weekend, there were plenty of impressive performances to make note of.

Kelly Fernandi, Prince William

The Virginia all-star flanker/lock was a big part of his team's victory in Pittsburgh, getting to just about every ruck, and generally making a nuisance of himself to opposing defenses.

Jack Freiheit and Luke Beinstock, Greenwich

The two big try-scorers for Greenwich have done something many players have trouble doing - maintain the hype. Both were expected to be important cogs for Greenwich, and both exceeded expectations. They continued this on through the select-side season, helping a mostly Greenwich team win the Northeast RCT.

Aircraft Charter Solutions PoW - Dmontae Noble

We were warned. Representatives of the Virginia boys select team kept pointing it out, that Dmontae Noble had been the JV MVP of the Challenge Cup RCT two years i a row.

Watch out, they said, when he plays for the varsity team.

And so we watched, and there was Noble, torching team after team with his pace, acceleration, and field vision. MVP again, and no one complained,

“The Virginia team has been an amazing experience,” said Noble, who plays his regular-season rugby for Warrenton. “It’s been a journey for a lot of us who have played JV and then Varsity. I felt really comfortable playing with them, and we have that great chemistry and we felt like we weren’t going to lose.”

Noble said his scoring opportunities came from the work of his teammates, especially flanker Kelly Fernandi of Prince William, and Fort Hunt prop William Pendergraph.

Indiana Youngsters Impress

In a Boys all-star season where the JV teams seem to have as much importance as the Varsity teams, Indiana is one of those that stuck out.

While Utah’s JV team dominated the competition in the Rocky Mountain Classic, Indiana’s was just as impressive, producing shutout after shutout, going 4-0, and really only being usher by Virginia, a team they beat in the final 37-14.

Hardened Fairfield Relishes Conn. Title

The Fairfield Rugby Club didn’t really know what to expect in the Rugby Connecticut HS club final June 13 - after a 5-2 regular season they knew they could be beaten, and their opposition, Cheshire, was undefeated.

RCT Assessment and All-Star Rankings

Time now to grade the RCT series - and perhaps the teams, too.

First, the entire Regional Cup system. It’s a great thing, and to have all of the tournaments basically over two weekends works nicely, too. We here at Goff Rugby Report World Headquarters believe that we might see more teams show up at more than one event - right now only Nebraska is doing that. Perhaps there can be more.

We’re seeing a clear differentiation in popularity of some of the tournaments. The two oldest events, the Mid-Atlantic Challenge Cup in Pittsburgh, and the Rocky Mountain Challenge in Aurora, Colo., drew the biggest field of teams. Why? Partly it is because they are long-standing events. The organizers know what they are doing, and have been doing it for a while. Part of it is the central location. It’s not hard to find flights to Pittsburgh, and even easier to fly to Denver.

JV All-Stars May Be Bigger Scouting Opportunity

Scouting talent at the five Regional Cup competitions this weekend was a tall order.

HS All American Head Coach Salty Thompson was at one tournament, and had trusted observers at others. But the scouting takes on something of an altered tenor when you think about who is really looking at what.

Many, if not the majority, of players on the Boys Varsity select sides are seniors. Of those, most are well-known the Thompson and his crew of coaches and scouts. A player might jump up and show that he’s got the goods, but it’s unlikely many will get a look at the HSAA team, simply because they are past high school.

Sure, graduate seniors play for the HSAA team all the time in summer tours (there is no HSAA summer tour this year). But it seems a waste of resources to send scouts all over the country to look only for the one or two seniors who emerged this year.

Greenwich Continuity Wins in Northeast

The Greenwich/Fairfield team won the Northeast RCT in a tournament where three select sides couldn’t overcome the unity and power of a (mostly) single program.

Greenwich HS was far and away the best team in Connecticut, and as has been the case in recent years, the team has remained intact for the local all-star competition, adding a few players from Fairfield Prep. Greenwich Head Coach Joe Kelly said he’d like to have welcomed more Fairfield players this year, but in the end added only two - varsity No. 8 Greg Terry, and JV flyhalf/center Connor Bercik. Both were instrumental to the team’s success.

And success it was, with Greenwich crushing a team of players from Vermont and the Albany, NY area (Capital District/Vermont) before beating a tough Massachusetts team 33-21.

Va Edges Fla in Pittsburgh

In perhaps the tightest final in this past weekend’s Boys all-star tournaments, Virginia edged Florida 19-17 to win the Mid-Atlantic Challenge Cup.

This game was a replay of the final from 2014, which was won by Florida. The Juice Head Coach, Chris Oosthuizen, said his team was better this year than last, which means Virginia was, too.

“It was a really good game,” said Florida’s Oosthuizen. “We played well. The boys did everything we asks them to. Defensively we stood up to those pick-and-go offenses, and we played as a team, but Virginia was just better than us.”

Formidable Utah Wins RMC Again

Utah dominated the field at the Rocky Mountain Challenge, providing four of the six finalists in three brackets, and winning all three finals.

The Utah Girls fell to Orem (Utah) in the girls final, but it was the Utah Youth Rugby teams tat prevailed in the two boys brackets, with the JVs hammered Texas 38-0 in the final, and in fact didn't give up a point in all four games. The Utah Varsity team wasn't quite as polished, at least early on.

"The coaches spoke to the Varsity team on Saturday night and told them that the JV team was showing them up - the Varsity certainly looked suspect," said Utah Youth Rugby President Owen Power.

Still, Utah won both of their Saturday matches, 15-6 over Oklahoma, and 36-14 over Wisconsin. On Sunday, said Power, "they were on fire."

Southern California Comes Back to Win SW RCT

The Southern California Griffins won the Southwest RCT Sunday in blistering heat in Bakersfield, Calif.

With MVP performances from Liam Jimmons (forwards, Back Bay), and Evan Clark (backs, Santa Monica), SoCal overcame a Saturday loss to Northern California to exact revenge early Sunday morning with a 26-24 victory.

"The first half was the best rugby I'd ever seen as a part of the Griffins program," said Southern California Coach Jeff Bonnett. "Credit to NorCal; they fought back. It was a fantastic game."

That result left both Southern California and Northern California 2-1 with games against Washington to come. NorCal led in points difference with a +56 versus SoCal’s +9. Assuming both beat Washington in the later games, Southern California needed to surpass NorCal’s winning margin by 48.

Georgia Shocks All to Win South

The Georgia boys HS all-star team put aside a series of contenders, not least of which was a tough North Carolina team in the final, to take the South Regional Cup Sunday at the RAC in Charlotte, NC.

Led by captain Josh Inglis (Lassiter Trojans), and with a host of strong performances by the likes of flyhalf Lechandt Opperman,(Phoenix Alphareta), scrumhalf Andrew Pretorius (Roswell), and prop Eddie Smith (Roswell), Georgia beat South Carolina and RBMA on Saturday, and then edged Tennessee 10-5 in the semis before beating North Carolina 24-20 in the final.

It was a dramatic final, with Georgia taking a commanding lead at halftime only to see North Carolina surge back. Georgia held on, though, and while they gave up a try to NC with about 30 second to go, they were able to run out the clock to win it.

RCT Scores - Boys

Scores from the five Regional Cup Tournaments in the Boys Varsity and JV brackets.

Northeast

Greenwich/Fairfield 73 Capital District/Vermont 0

Massachusetts W Connecticut L

Sunday

Final: Greenwich 33 Massachusetts 21

JV

Greenwich 33 Empire 30

Connecticut W Massachusetts L

Sunday

Empire 36 Massachusetts 0

Final: Greenwich 17 Connecticut 7

Southwest

Varsity

Northern California 29 Southern California 20

Northern California 52 Washington 3

Southern California 21 Washington 5

Northern California 24 Southern California 26

Northern California 31 Washington 22

All-Star Tournament Latest

Some latest news from the Regional Cup Tournaments around the country:

In the Challenge Cup (Mid-Atlantic) in Pittsburgh, Virginia ends the day as the #1 seed in Boys Varsity, with Indiana, Florida, and Maryland rounding out the top four. Virginia plays Maryland in the semis and Indiana plays Florida.

In the race for the Plate, Pennsylvania (#5) plays Empire (#8) and Ohio-North (#6) plays Illinois (#7).  Western New York will play New Jersey for 9th on Sunday.

In the Rocky Mountain Challenge in Colorado, Texas beat Idaho and Nebraska - and it wasn't really close - to go 2-0. Also 2-0 is Colorado (wins over Louisiana and Heart of America), and Utah (wins over Oklahoma and Wisconsin). Utah and Texas look good in the Boys JV, and Utah won their opening game in the girls bracket, also.