Berks Wins in PA For Second Weekend in a Row
Berks Wins in PA For Second Weekend in a Row
Berks County Rugby won their second straight Rugby PA 7s tournament and now go into the state championship weekend with some momentum.
The final round, played at LaSalle College High School, consisted of two four-team pools. With no Gregory the Great and Central PA Gold, Pool A consisted of top seed Knightmare, Downingtown, LaSalle, and St Joe's Prep, and Pool B had Berks, Bishop Shanahan, Conestoga, and Scotland Campus.
In Pool Play, Berks first squared off against Scotland Campus. Berks started fast and kept the pressure on all game, winning 29-0 with two tries from Jax Shingleton and one each from Ryan Roman, Markus Guzman, and Jake Stelluti. In their second pool game, Berks got a hat trick from Matt Cleland, two Baylor Kobularcik, and one from Ulices Ramirez to beat Conestoga 33-14.
Berks wrapped up pool play by shutting out Bishop Shanahan 38-0. Cleland scored three tries once again while Kobularcik, Roman, and Marquan Guzman all touched down.
Bishop Shanahan took 2nd in the pool.
In Pool A, LaSalle went 3-0 and took the #1 seed and St Joe's took the 2nd seed. This set up Berks vs St Joe's and LaSalle v Bishop Shanahan the semifinals.
Berks controlled their semifinal, beating St. Joe's 38-0 behind two tries by Shingleton (2) and one each from Cleland, Jaime Rivera, and Noe Herrera. In the second semifinal, Bishop Shanahan won a tight game over LaSalle 17-5 setting up a pool play rematch with Berks.
It was a tense final as Shanahan seemed to learn something from their earlier loss to Berks. Shanahan came out and immediately put Berks under pressure and didn't let up all game. After the two teams traded tries, Shanahan put down a second unconverted try to take a 12-7 halftime lead. Berks started the second half with a try from Cleland, his 8th of the tournament, to take a 14-12 lead. The game continued to go back and forth with both teams playing excellent defense. As the game drew to a close, Shanahan backed Berks up deep into their own 22 and looked to force a turnover to perhaps get that go-ahead try. Instead Kobularcik was able to break off a long try on the final play of the game to give Berks a 19-12 win.
Berks finished the Fall 7s regular season with 19-3-1.
