Berks County Rugby won its second consecutive RugbyPA Sevens State Championship this past Sunday, beating Downingtown in the championship game.
The RugbyPA Fall 7s season consists of six rounds of tournaments and a final State Championship tournament. Teams accumulated points throughout the season and were then seeded in the final tournament based on those points totals.
Berks finished the six buildup tournaments seeded second, behind Knightmare. It's worth noting that few teams attended every tournament, and Berks missed one. A closer look shows that while Knightmare earned the most points, Berks had the highest winning percentage and most wins. Unfortunately, the regular season took its toll on Knightmare and they had to pull out of the championship tournament due to injuries. This moved Berks to the #1 seed for the State Championship tournament.
Berks was going into the final tournament with momentum on their side. After finishing the first 3 tournaments with a record of 9-3-1 they decided to take round 4 off. They came back healthy and at full strength for the first time in the season. Berks won the final 2 rounds, going 10-0 in the process and finishing the regular season with a 19-3-1 record.
The state championship had 8 Tier I teams split into two four-team pools. Pool A consisted of Berks County Rugby, Downingtown, Conestoga and St. Joe’s Prep. Pool B consisted of Bishop Shanahan, LaSalle Gregory the Great and Central PA. Each pool team would play each other in pool play and then the top 2 seeds in each would move on to play in the semifinals.
In pool play, Berks started the morning off against St Joe’s Prep. Berks started the scoring within the first minute with the first of three tries by wing Matt Cleland, with Ryan Roman and Marquan Guzman also touching down in a 29-0 Berks victory. In the second pool game, Berks faced off against Conestoga. Jake Stelluti started the scoring for Berks and continued pressure on Conestoga led to led tries by Jax Shingleton and tries by Jamie Rivera and Markus Guzman as Berks won 27-10.
Downingtown also went 2-0 in pool play and that set up a clash between the two to figure out who would take 1st in the pool.
Once again Berks got on the board early. Tries by Baylor Kobularcik and Cleland put them up 12-0 before Downingtown responded to make it a one-score game.
BUt the talented Cleland put the game seemingly out of reach with two tries for a 24-7 halftime lead. Downingtown, which has orchestrated stirring comebacks before, inched closer but Stelluti sealed it. on a nicely-run kick-and-chase and support work. Berks won 31-21.
In pool B, the final pool game between 2-0 LaSalle and 2-0 Bishop Shanahan, would decide who was going to face off against Berks and who would face off against second seed Downingtown.
