Berks Wins Highly Competitive Rugby PA Fall Sevens Round 4
Berks Wins Highly Competitive Rugby PA Fall Sevens Round 4
Rugby Pennsylvania's Boys fall 7s promises to be a very intense competition all the way through the championship weekend.
Over this past weekend several teams showed flashed of being able to win the tournament, and while Berks County came away with the honors, LaSalle, Conestoga, Bishop Shanahan, Gregory the Great, Downingtown, and St. Joseph's Prep all were right there.
The competition was split into two pools of five with LaSalle College Prep, Downingtown, Knightmare, GGA II, and Conestoga in Pool A, and Berks, Bishop Shanahan, St. Joe's, Gregory the Great I, Central PA Gold, and LaSalle II in the other.
At first glance Pool A might have looked a little tougher, but in the end both were difficult to get through.
Key Games
Berks vs Bishop Shanahan
Berks has a tendency to start slowly in tournaments and could not afford to do that. With Jamie Rivera stepping in to bolster the side and score some tries, Berks played a physical game with good defensive pressure, and escaped a very quick and skilled Shanahan side 17-14.
LaSalle vs GGA
This was a tense game in which Paul Fay was huge for Gregory the Great, while Brian Bonohue, Jack Gallagher, and James Bones had big performances for LaSalle.
Bones scored on an early loop move, GGA's JP Adams answered, and Donohue set up an attack finished by Gallagher. With the score 10-5 GGA attacked and almost scored on a grubber through my Mike Miller. But the touchdown didn't quite happen and the game ended 10-5.
Conestoga vs Downingtown
Downingtown came back from a 12-0 deficit to win, scoring two converted tries, including one right at the end of the game.
Overall, the standard in the Boys HS division was quite high. Teams understood how to attack space in 7s, and if they didn't have the skills to make long passes, they looped and found odd-man rushes that way.
Only the pool winners went on to the final, so in the end Berks and LaSalle emerged as the top two teams.
Bishop Shanahan and Dowingtown came 2nd in their pools and playoff off for 3rd.
In the 3rd/4th game, Shanahan's pace and teamwork, and their willingness to use the boot to exploit space saw them through. With Mike Harper pulling the strings and the likes of Matt Harper finishing it off, Shanahan came away 33-10 winners.
The Final
Berks had to counter LaSalle's elusiveness and did so with intense defensive pressure.
Berks got on the board early only to see LaSalle reply and make it 7-7. That LaSalle try came with only seconds left in the first half. There was still time for the restart, and Rivera fed Baylor Kobularcik, who took off down the sideline, sold an audacious head fake, and was in under the posts.
That was a big score, making it 14-7 at the break.
LaSalle wasted no time in scoring and making it 14-12, crucially missing the conversion. From there the Berks defensive pressure put the game away. A forced turnover and smart draw-and-pass made it 19-12. A good chase on a deep restart and a poach and run from Jacob Stelluti put them in command at 24-12. And then a kick chargedown by Kobularcik set it up for one more try and a 31-12 win.
"We're definitely getting there," said Kobularcik. "We're still missing a couple of people ... with injuries and stuff. So I think when we have our full starting seven ... we'll be there."
This was a big step for Berks, but many teams have the ability to win the state title on November 6.
