Lamar came back from a 19-3 halftime deficits to beat Memorial 37-19 in Texas league play.

As has been their problem for much of the season, Lamar struggled to convert pressure into points early in the game. But in the second half, captain Fischer Wheat - normally a flanker but moved to flyhalf - fired up the team with an impassioned speech, and suddenly the tries started to come.

Wing Derek Paul scored on a long restart return, and chased a kick from Wheat, before running in his third of the half. Fullback Wylie Lastra took over the goalkicking and added a try.

Debutant center Jason Kramer and power No. 8 Sean Guzman both scored.

"This was a great week for the Lamar High School rugby program. Both the varsity and JV teams were victorious," wrote Lamar sophomore Ben Feldstein. "The varsity game started out slowly. Although Lamar was dominating the rucks, Memorial continually found gaps and made breakaway runs. Captain Fischer Wheat was furious at the sloppy play [at halftime] and gave a testosterone-filled motivational halftime speech."

The 10-12 combo of Wheat and Kramer was "unstoppable" wrote Feldstein.

"Lamar finally put their game faces on and started making big plays. Sajjad Mia, backs captain, made several crucial stops on the wing and locks Ben Feldstein and Griffin O’Connor were winning rucks left and right," he added.