Atlantis won the Boys HS Open 7s Friday at the Las Vegas Invitational, defeating British Columbia’s 2nd team in the final.

Atlantis won their pool, going 3-0, and then ran the table on Day Two. They defeated South Side Irish 17-7 in the quarterfinals, and then hammering Littleton 28-7 in the semis.

Both opponents were big, physical teams that succeeded by holding possession and forcing defenses to tackle their big, powerful runners. Atlantis defeated them by being dependable in the tackle, and clinical when they had the ball. And they had pace.

But the big key to Atlantis’s success was their restarts. During training, Atlantis program director Emil Signes told the players that their restarts weren’t good enough - the hang time was too short. He insisted that flyhalf Jacob Estes practice so that he could get his hang time over 3.8 seconds. He did, getting the hang time to a consistent four seconds or more. Often the restart would not be caught, and Atlantis would pounce. Sometimes Atlantis would catch it. But always, the Atlantis chase would be there when the ball dropped.

And then they worked the ball. 

D’Montae Noble out of the Warrenton Wolfpack in Virginia was often the scorer on these Atlantis attacks, showcasing a nice turn of pace and an ability to make tacklers miss.

“I just look to my flyhalf and scrumhalf to give me the ball, and I keep my head on a swivel, if there’s nothing there, we try to make something out of nothing,” Noble told Goff Rugby Report. "On defense we needed to make sure we're finishing our tackles, and we're the first ones at the ruck, and if we're not we get back on defense and we get the overload and we can get the ball back and attack." 

The closeness of the Atlantis team was evident. Many of them have played together since before high school. And they have bonded with everyone else.

“This team is like my family already,” said Noble.

Against BC, Noble said the team needed to make sure they finished their tackles and took the powerful, athletic BC players to ground. They did that, and turnover ball was punished severely, winning 28-7.

And so Atlantis impressed, especially since this was their second team; their first team was in the Elite 7s. Atlantis fielded about 150 players in the tournament, men and women.

D’Montae Noble for Atlantis Click image to enlarge. David Barpal photo.

Boys Open HS 7s

Cup Quarterfinals 

Atlantis 17 South Side Irish 12

Littleton Eagles 31 Tennessee Tri-Star Blue 21

Utah Lions 17 View Park Prep 12 (OT)

British Columbia 17 Capilano Black 12

Cup Semifinals

Atlantis 28 Littleton 7

British Columbia 24 Utah 0

Cup Final

Atlantis 28 British Columbia 7