Wild Quarters in Singe-School NIT
It was all about the drama at the Boys National HS Championships single-school quarterfinals as two games went to overtime.
Gonzaga put in a fairly workmanlike performance in dispatching St. Thomas Aquinas 29-0. Gonzaga scored relatively early, but took a while to really pull away as STA did a good job clearing their lines early.
Meanwhile, Herriman defeated Greenwich 36-15 after falling behind early.
"It was a strange game," said program director Jeff Wilson. "Greenwich is a very, very good team. They're fast, they execute well. And we couldn't get out of our way."
West Shore, Royal Irish Move On
West Shore United of Pennsylvania will meet Royal Irish in the semifinals of the Boys HS Club National Championships after both won their quarterfinals Thursday at the Rugby Athletic Center in Charlotte, NC.
West Shore defeated the Kansas City Jr. Blues, who led well into the game and gave West Shore all they could handle. Meanwhile, Phoenix Alpharetta did Georgia proud with a tough, uncompromising effort against the defending champions Royal Irish. While the final score was 38-10, it was much, much closer at halftime, and it wasn’t until the Royal Irish solidified their continuity and finished a little fresher that they could relax.
For West Shore, the 32-21 victory over the Jr. Blues was the result of secure possession up front.
United, Granite Bay to Semis
It will be United v Granite Bay in the semifinals of the Boys National High School Championships club division, as both won convincing quarterfinal games Thursday at the Rugby Athletic Center in Charlotte, NC.
Boys Nationals Tier II Latest
The semifinalists in the Tier II bracket in the Boys National High School Championships, and three of Thursday's quarterfinal games showed that the people who rank the teams involved did a pretty nice job.
The Union Mudturtles used their power in the middle and a solid core of skills to free up their speedsters out wide, and in doing so ran out to a 34-15 lead. But Northern California team North Bay scored two late tries to make it 34-27 with only a couple of minutes remaining. Union's defense held firm, and the Mudturtles from New Jersey held on to win.
Union struggled early and Head Coach Joe Dabulas said his players were making some careless offloads and rash decisions. He subbed off a couple of players as a result.
"It hurt us in some ways but we had to send the message that we need to stick to the game plan, and the guys responded," said Dabulas.
Gamebreakers - HS Boys This Week
Here’s a list of some of the HS boys players who had a big game or key plays in the past week or so.
Iowa Playoffs Loom as Polk Leads
The Iowa Youth Rugby Association 7s playoffs begin Friday after six weekends of games through April and May.
In a development that should probably be no surprise to anyone, SE Polk is undefeated, going 10-0-2 so far. Polk hasn’t lost a 7s game in Iowa in four years.
Bell Multicultural Takes MAVRC DII
Bell Multicultural defeated Landon 20-13 this past weekend to win the MAVRC Division II championship in the Maryland/DC area.
Both teams came into the matchup undefeated, with Landon at 5-0-1 and Bell at 4-0-2. The teams had played late in the regular season and that game ended in a tie.
Bell Multicultural came out firing on all cylinders by scoring two unconverted tries in the first 20 minutes. Flyhalf Hunter Echols kept the Landon backline on their heels with precision kicking that pinned Landon deep in their own territory much of the half. Landon fought back with some stellar halfback play, and help from Bell committing penalties inside their 22, and the result was two Landon penalties to make the score 10-6 for Bell at halftime.
Idaho Boys HS Final Set
The Idaho Boys HS final is slated for this weekend with annual rivals Capital HS and Mountain View ready to face off once more.
2015 Boys HS Club Rankings Week 15
We have five major moves to discuss in the Boys HS Club Rankings.
1. Red Mountain lost to two teams in the Pacific Cup, but did win a game, also. In the end, we could have bumped Santa Monica up based on their win over Red Mountain, but then we'd have to move Los Angeles up, too. And then who do we drop down below them? Maybe Doylestown. Maybe Liberty ... but the list is small. So, as a result of Santa Monica beating Red Mountain, we move Santa Monica up a bit, amd LA up also because they beat Santa Monica, and then Red Mountain right behind them both.
2. United, based on winning the Utah state title, moves up five places to #4.
3. Back Bay, despite a big loss to Kahuku, gets a bit of a mulligan. They didn't have most of their top players against Kahuku, and the reason wasn't injury, but school.
Boys Nationals Set for Thursday
The Boys National HS Championships kick off Thursday afternoon at the Rugby Athletic Center in Charlotte, NC.
Defending HS Club team Royal Irish out of Indianapolis is probably the favorite, but they could still find themselves with some stiff competition. United out of Utah is hitting its stride at just the right time, while Granite Bay has performed well against some very tough competition in Northern California. Orlando and West Shore might well produce some surprises this week.
2015 Boys Single-School Rankings Week 15
Oh, boy, so what to about the Boys single-school rankings.
We really liked Fallbrook, and at their best, which is healthy and playing one game on the weekend, they are terrific. But somewhat depleted and asked to play three games in three days at the Pacific Cup, they ended up 0-3. We don't think they are a poor team (and in fact, look at the notes, they lost to three really strong teams), but in the end we have to drop them down, and some other SoCal teams drop down, too.
SC Final to OT
South Greenville and Wando were two outstanding defensive teams in South Carolina, and two teams that seemed destined to meet in the state final.
South Doyle Tennessee Champs
The Tennessee state championship went to South Doyle after they held off Ravenwood 24-18 in the final Saturday.
In a physical game where both teams wanted to play open rugby, the teams were separated by just a point on three different occasions before a late South Doyle try put it away.
Ravenwood looked to use the boot to pin South Doyle back, but it wash’ always effective as South Doyle’s wings and fullback were aggressive in their counter-attacks.
Good quick ball combined with hard running allowed South Doyle to get much-needed points at crucial moments, as did stealing a few of Ravenwood’s scrum put-ins.
Senior hooker Elijah Hamilton, who had stolen all of Father Ryan’s scrum put-ins in the semis, was again crucial in this aspect, and stole on Ravenwood scrum ball five meters from his own line.
Aquinas Takes Kansas
St. Thomas Aquinas defeated the Kansas City Cougars 38-12 Saturday to take the Kansas Youth Rugby championship and exact revenge on a team that had beaten them earlier in the season.
Aquinas Head Coach Tim Kluempers said his team controlled the kicking game much better in this meeting of the two teams.
“We kicked with purpose,” he said. “We took care of the ball. We did a much better job of adapting to the referee and what he was calling.”
KC scored in the first minute of the game, but after that Aquinas had the run over play.
“Our backs are getting better and getting on track - we’re getting deeper and tighter and we’re understand how to play with each other,” added Kluempers. “We did a really nice job in the lineout, and the scrum was solid.”
KC Jr. Blues Win Missouri
The Kansas City Jr. Blues and St. Louis University High met in St. Louis Sunday for the Missouri state HS final, and when it was over the Blues were champions … but barely.
The Missouri playoffs included eight teams in a format where the quarterfinals and semifinals were held in shortened format on Saturday. SLU had little trouble in beating Park Hill and Eureka, and in fact didn’t allow a try in those games.
KC defeated the Marquette Mustangs and Priory, with the Mustangs giving them all sorts of trouble in a tight game.
But in the end it was the two favored programs in the final.
