In one of the biggest high school games of the weekend, Corona Centennial scored a late try to tie Murrieta Valley 22-22 and leave both teams tied at 3-0-1 in the Southern California Varsity White OC Inland Conference.

The game was notable for several reasons, both inspiring and sad. This was a clash of two undefeated teams looking to make the SoCal playoffs. The winner would take the conference and get a guaranteed spot in the final eight. But the good news for both of these teams is that there are three wild card spots, and so it is almost assured that both will be in the quarterfinals next week.

The game was notable also because Corona Centennial is a completely new program, with a few players carrying some rugby experience from youth programs in the area.

Tragedy

But the other piece of news is enormously sad. On January 19, three Corona Centennial boys were run off the road and killed (according to reports) after a game of Ding Dong Ditch went horribly wrong, as the homeowner whose doorbell was rung got into his car and chased the boys.

Anurag Chandra was later arrested and charged with murder.

Two of the boys who died, Daniel Hawkins and Drake Ruiz, were Corona Centennial rugby players. The other boy was Jacob Ivascu.

Understandably this hit the Corona Centennial community very hard, and the rugby players have rallied to support the families of their friends. They also gathered at the memorial service, where they presented a Haka in honor of their teammates.

“I am not normally a Haka guy, but this seemed appropriate,” said Centennial Head Coach Brian Hudspeth.

A Game To Be Played

The game this weekend, then, was also a chance to honor fallen rugby players.

“It was very emotional,” said Murrieta Valley Head Coach Sean Hannon. “They had lost their teammates, and a lot of our guys are friends with their guys.”

The game itself was very intense. While Centennial has a large number of Polynesian kids who have grown up with rugby, they are still relatively inexperienced, and that leads to penalties. They make up for it with a good team ethos, athleticism, and physicality.

“They put us under a ton of pressure,” said Hannon. “They put us under more pressure than we’ve seen a season.”

Murrieta Valley looked to use their superior rugby experience and skill to counter Centennials intensity. Part of that plan was to kick and turn the onrushing defense. But the pressure from the Centennial forced some of those kicks to land in the waiting arms of Centennial fullback Cameron Fernandez, and he had a massive game countering those kicks and keeping Murrieta Valley on their heels.

Still Murrieta was able to spin the ball at times, and wing/scrumhalf Manny Barboa scored three tries on the day. Adding to that was No. 8 Marcus Nguyen, who powered over for a try. 

Classic Finish

Centennial held on thanks in large part to the play and leadership of flanker and captain Josaiah Tanielu. The defensive captain on the Centennial football team, Tanielu led the defense and also scored a key try for Centennial. Also getting on the scoresheet was Mafileo Tupou, and as time wound down, Murrieta Valley held onto a slim 22-17 lead.

With a few players out due to injuries and a college visit, Murrieta Valley’s bench was small, and Hannon said he saw his players tiring late. 

Centennial capitalized, and Tupou scored his second of the evening to tie the game 22-22, and that’s how it ended.

“We needed to use our skill and apply our experience in the game to counter their forwards,” said Hannon. “But when those forwards got going they were very tough to stop.”

“This was a great game for us,” added Hudspeth. “Like Murrieta, we’ve won our games by large margins. This game exposed our weaknesses.”

Centennial’s head football coach Matt Logan was actually in attendance at the game, and he has ben very supportive of the development of the rugby team there. After the game he told Hudspeth “I need to send you 30 more players.”

With a few exceptions, most of the Centennial team is made up of freshmen and sophomores. Their starting flyhalf, Samurai Anderson, is a freshmen who played a little in middle school, but basically had to learn to run the offense in a few weeks.

Murrieta Valley countered an overall size deficiency with some smart rugby play, and with a deeper bench could do some serious damage in the playoffs.

But with all of that, thoughts return to the families of Hawkins, Ruiz, and Ivascu, and lives cut short for no good reason.