2015 Boys HS Club Rankings Week 13
In this latest Boys HS Club rankings, as promised Orlando and West Shore move up into the top ten after solid recent results, including Orlando beating #8 Weston for the Florida state championship.
Royal Irish stays at #2 after beating Single School #2 Penn, but there are more games to come.
Liberty and West Valley Warriors drop out of the top ten as we're not completely sold on their competition and how well they've done against all opponents. West Valley lost to unranked Lowland, but didn't really need to win that game as far as the playoffs are considered, so we'll wait to see how they finish. The Texas playoffs showed us where the stronger teams were, and Pennsylvania results - namely Doylestown slamming a previously undefeated Kutztown - force some other shifts - Texas teams down, Pennsylvania teams up.
2015 Boys Single-School Rankings Week 13
There aren't too many major changes in this week's Single-School Boys Rankings, but there are some rankings to make note of.
Fallbrook slips after their loss to Back Bay, and Xavier and Greenwich move up as a result. Regis Jesuit returns to their rightful place a week after we left them off by mistake. Brownsburg moves up and Notre Dame De La Salette moves down after Brownsburg won the game between the two. West Allegheny (Pa.), North Mecklenburg (NC), and Newberg (Ore.) move in. All are undefeated. Bixby, St. Augustine, St. Thomas, and East HS of Utah drop out. East and Bixby could well move back in.
Tennessee HS Teams to Playoffs
The Tennessee state semifinals are set after this past weekends conference playoffs.
Christian Brothers defeated PCA and Germantown in impressive fashion to win the West Tn. Conference. South Doyle beat Bearden 41-0 to ensure their place into the semifinals, joining Ravenwood and Father Ryan.
South Doyle will play Father Ryan, and Christian Brothers will take on Ravenwood this weekend.
For Christian Brothers, it was an especially rewarding weekend, as their league is split into two pools, they really had no idea what they were up against. PCA had pushed Germantown in their pool, and both had won the remainder of their games.
“Nerves were on end, for sure,” said SBHS Head Coach Justin Whitmer. “Both PCA and Germantown are quality teams and our local games that we played against them went down to the wire.”
New Face Among Rugby Pa Leaders
West Allegheny remains the top team in Rugby Pennsylvania’s single-school Blue Division with two victories in the past week, 63-13 over Fox Park, and 8-0 over Woodlands Hills.
Playoffs Loom in Maryland Leagues (Updated)
Georgetown Prep continues to put in good performances and ended their season undefeated after beating Perry Street Prep 52-0.
That sets up a Metro Area Varsity Rugby Conference semifinal matchup with Salesianum.
Junior Flyhalf James Lyons continued his try-scoring run, having crossed the line in every game this season. Hoyas overall points leader, fullback Jason Colliton, slotted a half-dozen conversions in the Perry Street match in tough, windy conditions. Prop Jeff Ferrigno, No. 8 Connor Stewart, and fellow back rowers Colin Whalen and Thomas Gates all touched down.
Defensively Georgetown is led by center Pat McCann and hardworking hooker Tommy Cirrito, who have been influential in Prep’s three straight shutouts.
RugbyWa Names All-Stars
The Rugby Washington select-side program has named its Loggers select squad to compete in regional all-star tournaments this spring.
The list includes seven players who were at the USA HS All American camp or played for the All Americans in recent months: Will Brennan, Finlay Bruce, Alfonso Cornu-Labat, Derise Fuga, Tristan Ingold, Brian Nault, and Kyle Saalfeld.
Colorado Down to 4
The Rugby Colorado playoffs began this past weekend with all eight teams in the quarterfinals.
As one might expect, it was a pretty one-sided weekend, with the top seeds moving through easily.
Top seed East HS won by forfeit over #8 Cherry Creek, which ended its season 0-8. The #2 seed, Regis Jesuit, had already beaten Chaparral 59-0 the previous Wednesday, so one can imagine Chaparral wasn't in the mood for a similar experience. Regis won 106-0. Things were a little closer with the other seeds. #3 Colorado Springs advanced to Saturday's semis with a 37-5 defeat of Littleton. And, as expect the #4 v #5 game was a close one. Aurora has lost to PAC March 7, but their lost losses to East and Regis Jesuit (both by five points) in the following weeks showed they had picked up their game.
Snow Canyon Wins Rivalry Game with United
Snow Canyon retained the Ra Puriri Cup this weekend, winning their annual rivalry game with United 13-10.
The game is named for Ra Puriri, the father of United Coach Colin Puriri and Snow Canyon Coach Michael Puriri.
In an intense match between two strong teams and played on ANZAC Day, both teams had to deal with rain, cold, and mud, as well as a 25-minute delay for lightning at halftime.
In the game, Snow Canyon’s Sam Slivers scored the only try of the first half for a 5-0 Snow Canyon lead. United thought they had tied it up, but the ref ruled no try.
Westlake Wins Texas
Texas crowned their Boys HS state champion Sunday with Westlake defeating Lake Travis 17-12 in the final.
The teams played semifinals on Saturday, with Westlake winning comfortably over Kingwood, while Lake Travis got up early on Woodlands, led 17-0 at halftime, and held on 29-17.
The teams in the final, then, had enjoyed very different buildups. Westlake had been able to rest some of their starters, while Lake Travis had needed to battle all the way through.
The wind was a big factor in the final, and Westlake opted to go with the wind in the first half. The Chaps wanted to use scrumhalf Ryan Rees to pin Lake Travis back with his box kicking, and that’s exactly what happened. Rees’s deft kicking made if very difficult for Lake Travis to get a purchase on the game, and when Stu Lassiter scored on a quick tap, that got them rolling.
Empire Makes SoCal Green Final - Wants More
The Empire Rugby Club made the final of the Green division in Southern California Boys HS Rugby with a 56-20 defeat of Hawaiian Gardens.
Empire beat Rising Eagles, Desert Valley, and Hawaiian Gardens in league play to get to the playoffs, where they hammered Poway, a team that beat them in a non-league game earlier in the year.
Empire also beat soon-to-be #5 Back Bay in a non-league game in February.
Led by the likes of scrumhalf Braz Burnes, and Sua Moi and Joe Price in the pack, Empire has learned from their early challenges to wade through their competition.
Now they face Orca in next week’s final. Orca beat the Coastal Dragons 48-40 Saturday in the other semifinal.
Orlando Takes Florida Title
Orlando is the Florida Youth Rugby boys HS champions after beating Weston 21-18 Saturday in Palm Beach.
The game was a very tight affair throughout, and a contrast of styles as Weston tried to get the ball out through the backs, using the playmaking ability of scrumhalf Alex Ruiz and Matthew Mairowitz, and some expressive running by fullback Ramiro Fernandez.
Orlando, meanwhile, worked it through the forwards first, and hopes to starve the Weston backline of possession. It was a close-run thing, but Orlando’s approach worked.
“We felt we had to have the ball in our hands and not in theirs,” said Orlando Head Coach Chris Quigley. “They are a first-rate team, the best backline in the state, and we saw at nationals last year what happened when a good forward pack keeps the ball. We wanted to frustrate them, and I think we did.”
Boys Rankings Top 10 Preview
We don't normally do this, but we're getting close to NIT seeding time and all of that, so we are producing a sneak preview of the Boys HS Rankings.
It takes us a long time to get all of the results from the 150 or so teams we're trying to track and we didn't want to wait for those wondering about the very top.
So here's what we have in terms of results among top-ten teams:
Single School #1 Gonzaga - Comfortable win over Salesianum.
Multi-School #1 Danville beat MS#3 Granite Bay 34-31 to win the NorCal championship.
SS#2 Penn lost 12-3 to Multi-School #2 Royal Irish in Indiana league play.
SS#3 Jesuit of Sacramento was idle.
MS#4 Red Mountain was idle.
SS#4 Fallbrook lost in overtime to MS#7 Back Bay.
SS#5 Xavier beat SS#7 Greenwich 37-36 in New York.
Dramatic Finales for SoCal Semis
Los Angeles and Back Bay will play for the Southern California HS club title next week after both teams won nailbiting semifinals on Saturday.
Back Bay (ranked the #7 multi-school team by Goff Rugby Report) defeated #4 single-school team Fallbrook in overtime.
In a wild game, Fallbrook scored early and held onto a slim 5-0 lead throughout the first half. Back Bay eventually responded. Playing with their full complement of HS All Americans, including Aaron Matthews, Liam Jimmons, and prop Dallas Moliitele and Christopher Taliu they took the lead, only to see Fallbrook come back to tie it.
Late in the game, Back Bay led 17-10, and it appeared time might be up. However, the Sharks opted to kick downfield rather than into touch, and Fallbrook returned the kick for the game-tying try.
Xavier Wins Thriller over Greenwich
In one of three massive clashes between highly-ranked teams this weekend, #5 Xavier HS came back to beat #7 Greenwich HS 37-36 with a penalty kick at the death.
Greenwich stormed out of the gates with three first-half tries to lead, but Xavier figured out what they were doing wrong and managed to get a try across before halftime. After the break, it was more Xavier, with three tries and a penalty making it 27-17 for the New Yorkers.
Bishop O'Dowd Wins Wild NorCal Silver Final
Bishop O’Dowd won a wild Northern California Boys Varsity Silver final Saturday, beating North Sacramento 45-31 in an emotional contest.
O’Dowd’s players were physically smaller, but brought plenty of bravery, physical strength, and technique to their defensive effort. Meanwhile, North Sacramento combined plenty of size and some astounding ball-movement and line-breaking ability, but in the end couldn’t control their possession or their discipline enough.
