Unity Keeps Hampton Undefeated
The Hampton Rugby Club plays in the little-noticed Peninsula conference in Rugby Virginia.
Overlooked thanks to more established teams such as West End and Fort Hunt in the North, and other heavy-hitters from DC and North Carolina, Hampton has just been steadily chugging along - perhaps we should say dominating.
After their 20-0 shutout of Buckroe on the 18th, Hampton is 4-0, having scored 169 points and allowed … 3. That’s right. Four games, one penalty goal.
Hampton is a team that serves players from a low income region. The players, for the most part, aren’t starters on the football or basketball teams. They come from all walks of athletic life.
In Defense of Regis Jesuit
We here at Goff Rugby Report do our very best, and once in a while that’s good enough, and once in a while we make mistakes, and once in a while, we make a huge mistake.
This week, we talk about a huge mistake, and try to make it right.
We deleted, by mistake, Regis Jesuit from our Single-School Top 50. We should instead of deleting them, have move them up about 20 spots, but as use a spreadsheet and sometimes we delete a team in order to move them somewhere else. We just failed to put Regis Jesuit back in the list.
Now, this is bad because Regis is on a role. Since their close tournament loss to Jesuit of Dallas - the Texas team’s high water mark and maybe the Colorado team’s low water mark - and their close, 19-14 loss to East HS, Regis has won six in a row, including defeats of ranked teams St. Thomas Aquinas, PAC, Colorado Springs, and Aurora.
O'Dowd, North Sac for NorCal Silver Final
More than one Boys HS championship game will be played in Moraga, Calif. this weekend as the Varsity Silver final will see Bishop O’Dowd face off with North Sacramento.
North Sac provided plenty of fireworks in the preliminary rounds, trundling over the Southside Irish and then beating in-conference rivals Danville (their 2nd team, that is) 60-25. The Warriors are now 8-0 in league play and feature some huge bodies, including a midfield that is perhaps the biggest in the country.
They face, in the final, Bishop O’Dowd, a very different team. BOD defeated previously-unbeaten Bullard in the quarterfinals 34-33 before holding off Elsie Allen 35-34.
Kingwood Win Finalizes Texas Playoff Matchups
Kingwood defeated Cy-Fair 33-19 Tuesday night in a makeup of a postponed game; this game puts Kingwood into the Rugby Texas semifinals and eliminated St. Thomas.
St. Thomas needed Cy-Fair to win in order to stay in 2nd place in the South division. But with the Kingwood win, they move to 2nd behind 6-1 Woodlands.
That sets up the Rugby Texas semis, with Kingwood (5-2) against Westlake (8-0), and Woodlands (6-1) v. Lake Travis (6-1).
Latest standings:
Gamebreakers - HS Boys This Week
Here's our latest list of players who made a difference for their teams this past weekend.
Hayden Warneke, Kent, Wash.
The Kent Crusaders hooker led his team to a wild 41-35 victory over Budd Bay. A leader in the breakdown and an accurate lineout thrower, Warneke also unleashed some nice open-field running and passing skills as he helped put his team in playoff position.
2015 Boys Single-School Rankings Week 12
We're back with the Boys single-school rankings after skipping a week (big playoff week and we just didn't get to it in time, and made the executive decision on Friday to wait). There's a little shift up top where Jesuit's loss to a very strong Granite Bay team and less-than-dominant win over Dixon inches them down behind a Penn squad that beat a very capable Notre Dame de La Salette.
Xavier, despite having a good tour on the West Coast, drops in part because we've got to reward Fallbrook for their continued success, and in part because this weekend Xavier plays Greenwich - this is a huge clash in which the winner will have an excellent case for being among the top seeds at the Boys Single-School NIT.
Herriman Over East - Utah SS Update
Herriman exactly some measure of revenge of East HS - one of three teams to defeat them since they went varsity in 2012.
Trojans, Phoenix in to Georgia Final
The Lassiter Trojans and Phoenix Alpharetta will meet Saturday for the Georgia state HS championship after both won semifinals this past weekend.
The top-seeded Trojans of Marietta showed why they went undefeated in the regular season with a 55-12 victory over the #4 seed Norsemen RFC out of Kennesaw. Trojan backs captain and Life University commit Josh Inglis opened the scoring with a dash down the right sideline, breaking multiple tackles for the first try of the game. Club captain Shea O’Hanlon then pounced on a mishandled kick by the Norsemen for the second try. Inglis then scored his second try of the half, followed by teammates J.P. Gouin and Michael Curran scoring as the Trojans jumped to a 29-0 lead at the intermission.
RugbyWa - Liberty Rolls, Kent Holds On
Liberty won big once more to put some distance between themselves and the rest of the field in Rugby Washington’s Boys DI HS league. Meanwhile, things get ever more crowded further down the table.
Chuckanut lost 47-7 to Eastside, putting them in a three-way tie with Seattle, who lost 66-10 to Liberty.
Above those three teams are Budd Bay and Kent. Those two battled in a weird, windy game in Lacey, Wash. Saturday. The two teams traded tries throughout the afternoon, with Budd Bay eventually ruing the absence of both of their goal kickers (injury and family commitments, respectively). Kent led early and the rest of the game was a series of efforts by Budd Bay to close the gap, and Kent’s ability to respond when the momentum was shifting.
Six College Campuses Add Nike Rugby Camps
Nike Rugby Camps recently announced the addition of new overnight rugby camps at several well-known universities including Duke, Michigan State, Oregon State, Arizona State, CU Boulder, and Rutgers. These schools join existing sites University of California, University of San Diego, Stanford University and Clemson, bringing the total number of Nike Rugby Camp locations to 10.
“We’ve added some outstanding schools and coaches this summer,” states Jason West, senior vice president for Nike Rugby Camps. “Aligning with big university brands hopefully brings more attention to the sport domestically and exposes more young rugby players to top-level coaching in a healthy, positive environment."
NorCal Semis Set Up Massive Final
Danville will play Granite Bay for the championship of Northern California’s multi-school division next Saturday after both won semifinals Sunday at the Cherry Island Sports Complex in Rio Linda.
Weston, Orlando to Florida Final
The final is set for the Florida Boys HS state championship after Weston beat Naples soundly, and Orlando escaped Riviera Beach in a wild, and close, contest.
Weston started their scoring early, with some impressive backline play leading to outside center Evan Barada feeding winger John Powers for the score. Naples brought a physical defense, but Weston’s relentless attack tested them, and earned a penalty that flyhalf Matthew Mairowitz put over for a 10-0 lead.
#1 v #4 Gonzaga Beats Xavier
Goff Rugby Report #1-ranked single-school boys team Gonzaga tightened their grip on that ranking Saturday with an impressive 31-14 defeat of #4 Xavier HS.
Xavier showed well in a game that was close until well into the second half, with flyhalf James Tweedy once again having a strong game for the New York-based school. But the kids from DC were too big, and too powerful, and wore Xavier down.
Gonzaga got on the board first when Xavier lost the ball in contact and wing Tyree Randolph picked it up and sped to the line over 80 meters.
Gonzaga was on the front foot after that and only a staunch defensive effort from Xavier held them out. Eventually, though, it was going to happen.
"It was really good rugby on both sides," said Gonzaga Head Coach Peter Baggetta. "Good continuity and phase play from us, and great defense from them."
Deep South Final Decided by Kicks
The Deep South Boys HS title was decided Saturday, and it took the maximum amount of time as the game went into overtime, and then penalty kicks.
