Greenwich Wins Connecticut Single-School
Greenwich High School won their 8th straight Connecticut single-school state championship Thursday with an impressive 70-10 defeat of Fairfield Prep.
Greenwich got three tries from scrumhalf Soh Nakayama, and two from Jack Freiheit and Liam Woodland. Mitch Nethercott, Eric Menchaca, Luke Bienstock, Jack Weigold, and Joe DeMuyt all touched down, as well, while Nakayama added five conversions for a personal haul of 25.
Freiheit's two tries game him 33 for the season, and 56 for his career at Greenwich, both school records. Nakayama finished the season with 277 total points, and is now #2 all-time at Greenwich with 322 in all his years thre. Beinstock scored his 24th try of the season, putting him 3rd all-time.
Katy Wins 7s in Houston
Katy won the Houston HS summer 7s this past weekend, defeating St. Thomas HS in the final.
Kingwood, Strake Jesuit, Lamar, and Bay Area also participated.
“The team played well,” said Katy Coach Ryan Marshall. “We still have a lot to work on in transitioning from 15s to 7s, but the team looked very strong for this season.”
Halfback Lesedi Manthata was named tournament MVP, and he combined well with center/wing Alec Savoy, and center Jason Paul, Jr. Paul, who is reportedly headed to Davenport in the fall, scored the opening try in the final.
“We take 7s very seriously,” added Marshall. “Especially with the rising pursuit of 7s in the US, it's important to give ruggers their chance to shine at both 15s and 7s. We treat it the exact same as 15s in terms of competition within our organization.”
Deep Field at Rocky Mt. Challenge
The 15th Annual Rocky Mountain Challenge, the USA’s longest-running high school all-star tournament, is set for June 20-21 at the Aurora Sports Park in Aurora, Colo.
Saturday the activities get started with the parade of teams led by a bagpiper at 9:30am, with the first kickoff at 10:00am.
The Boys Varsity bracket welcomes back Louisiana, which won this tournament three times, and Utah, which won in 2014. Nine teams participate this years, including first-time participants Idaho, and previous champions Minnesota, Texas, and Wisconsin. Also participating are Colorado, Heart of America, and Nebraska.
Utah is also the defending champion in the Boys JV bracket, and they return to face Colorado, Heart Of America, Minnesota, Texas, Wisconsin, and a team out of Colorado Springs dubbed 5720.
Conn. Finals Coming Up
Greenwich takes on Fairfield Prep Thursday evening for the Connecticut single-school boys state championship in a game where the #8-ranked Greenwich team has to be heavily favored.
Fairfield has had their moments, and Greenwich Head Coach Joe Kelly said he expects the game to be a difficult one.
“We expect Fairfield Prep to bring their best effort, and while we beat them pretty handily a month ago, I know the game will be much closer this time around,” said Kelly.
Led by a passel of HS All American players and prospects - Luke Bienstock, Jack Freiheit, Mike McTiernan, Patrick McTiernan, Ian Pearson, Jack Weigold, and Soh Nakayama - Greenwich has enjoyed something of a breakout season from lock forward Parker Kelly (no relation to the coach).
The junior has grown to 6-6, and has been a force in the lineout and at the breakdown.
South RCT Set for RAC
Seventeen teams in four brackets will compete in the South Regional Cup HS all-star competition at the Rugby Athletic Center in Charlotte, NC June 20-21.
The Boys Varsity tournament includes teams from Tennessee, Arkansas, South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, and, out of Florida, Riviera Beach Maritime Academy. North Carolina won last year's competition.
Four of those programs - Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, and North Carolina will also field JV Boys teams. Western North Carolina, East North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia also will send middle-school-age teams to the event.
The Girls Varsity competition is smaller, with only South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee confirmed at present.
Scouts for both Boys and Girls HS All Americans teams will be there. Brendan Keane is confirmed as the scout for the boys team.
46 Youth Teams at YOasis 7s
The YOasis Youth 7s tournament was held this past Saturday at Dusty Rhodes Park in San Diego.
Delbarton Top Single-School in NJ
Delbarton School defeated St. Augustine 33-21 Sunday to win the Rugby New Jersey single-school Boys HS championship.
It wasn’t an easy game, and likely the toughest game of the season for a Delbarton team that hadn’t run into too much trouble in league play this season.
“They are the most physical team we’ve played all year,” said Delbarton Coach Nick Linfante. “They have some good athletes, but what we were able to do was run the ball through a few phases with the forwards, suck their defense in, and when we sent it out wide, we had lots of space.”
St. Augustine got to the final in part but getting some good athletes from their football and wrestling programs, but Delbarton’s rugby experience saw ten through. Delbarton scored early and the two teams traded tries into halftime.
NE All-Star Tourney Set for June 20
The Northeast Regional Cup Tournament (RCT) is set for June 20-21 at the campus of UMass Amherst in Massachusetts.
(RCT is the same as the Regional All-Star Tournaments, or RASTs, of previous years.)
The tournament will include boys teams from Massachusetts, and Rugby Connecticut. In addition, a squad from Greenwich, Conn., Fairfield County, Conn., and Westchester, NY will play, as will a squad from players in Vermont combined with players from New York’s Capital District (which is just over the border).
All of those teams will also field a JV team, joined by a team from the Empire Division in New York.
For the girls teams, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Vermont/Capital will compete.
These are the confirmed teams.
Mid-Atl. All-Star Tourney Returns to Pittsburgh
The Mid-Atlantic Challenge Cup Regional Cup Tournament is in its 11th year and once again returns to Founders Field in Pittsburgh, Pa. June 20-21.
This is one of the biggest and most successful HS all-star events on the East Coast, with 25% of players from the last two events being named to the Stars & Stripes game in Colorado.
Mudturtles Dance to NJ Title
The Union County Mudturtles followed up their National Tier II tournament championship of a few weeks ago by winning the New Jersey State championship this past Sunday.
The Mudturtles defeated Morris County 36-10, capping off an excellent year for the perennial New Jersey power. Senior prop Nick Costa started the scoring off early. Costa was in support of Kevin Trotter, and after Trotter broke through for 40 meters, he dished off to the prop who bulled his way over.
Xavier Wins NY
Xavier HS won the Rugby NY Boys HS championship with an impressive 40-0 defeat of The Harvey School Sunday in Utica, NY.
The perennial state champions had to battle for it a little bit, especially in the early part of the first half.
“The first 12 minutes or so they were running really hard at us,” said Xavier Head Coach Greg Norris. “Their centers are pretty formidable. But our centers tackled well, and if it weren’t for them, we would have given up a couple of tries I am sure.”
Harvey was camped out on the Xavier line about 12 minutes in when Xavier turned them over, kicked downfield, and started to pressure Harvey for the first time in the game. Eventually Xavier earned a penalty and from that prop Oliver Kucynski went over for the first try.
“That was a big momentum shift,” said Norris.
Rugby NY Boys Playoffs Latest
Here is the latest from the Rugby NY Boys HS playoffs:
Cup Semifinals
Xavier hammered a very solid Kenmore team 59-14 to make the final.
The Harvey School defeated Fairport 40-20 to make it an all-MetNY final.
Xavier and Harvey met previously this season, May 2, with Xavier winning 45-5.
DI Tier 2
This is basically a Plate bracket. MetNY #3 Pelham defeated Syracuse 47-24. Pelham, in their first season of high school rugby, and a varsity program, will meet up with another small, public, varsity program in New Rochelle, who beat McQuaid Jesuit, the Upstate #3, convincingly.
DII
Play Rugby USA, which finished their Met NY West season 4-0, slammed the Rochester Barbarians 92-0. Play Rugby plays Capital District #1 Saratogs for the DII title.
Edina 4th Title in Dramatic Fashion
Edina won the Boys DI HS championship in Minnesota in dramatic fashion, scoring a late try to go up by one and then holding off Duluth in a furious goal-line stand to end the game.
"This was like one of those Hollywood endings," said Edina Coach Chris Babiash. "Just an amazing game."
USA Men's 15s assistant coach Nate Osborne was in attendance and agreed that the excitement and standard of the game was of the highest order. "These kids are playing at a level that we see in Australia. It was just an amazing game, and great to see it in a stadium with all the other games, and so competitive."
Duluth punished Edina with their forward game, running pick-and-goes and daring Edina to stop them.
"They had a game plan; we knew what they were going to do," said Babiash. "But we couldn't stop it."
Greenwich, Fairfield Prep to Conn. Final
Greenwich High School defeated Ridgefield 78-11 Friday night and Fairfield Prep defeated Simsbury 40-19 Thursday night to set up the June 13 Connecticut state single-school final.
For Greenwich, Jack Freiheit scored five tries, making 31 for the season, while scrumhalf Soh Nakayama adding two tries and kicked nine conversions for a personal total of 28 points.
Jack Weigold, Artem Morozov, Owen Tedford, Fermin Moraiz, and Luke Beinstock all scored tries for the Cardinals.
Fairfield Prep, meanwhile, notched their 5th-straight victory, The last time they lost was against Greenwich on May 1. The score was 77-0.
New Jersey Finals Saturday
New Jersey crowns two champions this weekend with Union County taking on Morris, and Delbarton facing St. Augustine.
Delbarton and Augustine will meet for the single-school championship - see more here. Delbarton has been unbeaten this year, but by far their toughest game was against St. Augustine, a 15-0 Delbarton victory.
