Boys HS Games This Week: Some Playoffs Already

Believe it or not we're actually talking playoffs in one league, and looking ahead to playoffs in a couple of others.

Northern California

In Northern California, the games, which are all preseason anyway, have been curtailed by this being an ACT testing weekend.

We do see De La Salle play Bellarmine, Lamorinda at a relatively quiet (so far) Danville, and East Palo Alto taking on San Mateo.

EPA is an interesting one because a team's name shift (this is essentially the Menlo-Atherton team but with an expanded recruiting footprint), and a name change can be a red flag. But the Razorhawks have a ton of talent. Last week's win over Sac PAL saw center Dane Fifita, flanker Mateaki Malaefoou, and Saia Pongi lead a really strong effort in which EPA excels in open play.

Fifita is a talent in football as well as rugby and will be garnering interest from colleges in both sports. Fifita and the rest of the Razorhawks could really shake up Northern California.

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Missouri-Oklahoma

Bixby out of Oklahoma and the Kansas City Jr. Blues reacquaint themselves with each other in a first runout for both. As is usually the case, the teams in the Kansas City area and in Oklahoma are a bit isolated and have to travel more to find different competition. The good news in KC is that with the growth of Kingfishers and now Liberty North, KC has more than two teams of some quality. In Oklahoma, there seems to be some solid enthusiasm to bring the league to full strength for this year. With a new varsity college program on their doorstep, the high school student-athletes have another reason to give rugby a look.

Playoffs??

The Carolinas school season begins their playoffs with the top tier seeing Ardrey Kell vs league-leaders South Meck, and Charlotte Catholic vs Myers Park in the other semi. Ardrey Kell did well to win big last week and make the playoffs, but will be up against a very strong South Meck defense.

Southern California

Friday night's clash between Torrey Pines and Long Beach Poly is a meeting of probably the two top teams in the School teams in the Southern California Youth Rugby season. In the open division Carlsbad vs St. Anthony is another clash of teams that haven't lost in the league.

The SCIRF Varsity competition is, if you remember, very tight with three teams at 2-1. Two of those, Fallbrook and Cathedral Catholic, play Friday night. When these two met January 7 Fallbrook emerged 33-24 winners. Both teams are better now.

Florida

In Florida Cape Pirates at 2-1 against 1-0-1 Boca is a game that has big implications. Same goes for Jacksonville, which lost to Cape last week, and Wellington, which is 2-1 but needs a win against a stronger opponent to truly turn some heads.  

Come and Take It

The Come and Take It tournament at The Woodlands is a bit earlier in the season than it has been before, but with an estimated 800 rugby players invoklved it seems to be doing OK. Woodlands, Strake Jesuit, Four Points, San Antonio, and Katy should be there.

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