Surprises all around as Rugby Idaho completed its girls fall 7s season.

JV

Rocky Mountain Purple started the season on September 8, beating Rocky Mountain Black 29-5 in the first game of the entire season, but then struggled to retain that form, finishing the regular season 4-8.

But in the semis on Saturday, Purple once again beat Black, this time 29-12, to upset the 10-2 Black team and make the state final.

As expected, Mountain View beat Eagle 36-0 to join Rocky Mountain Purple in the final.

There, Purple once again pulled off a shocker, scoring with two minutes left to turn a 14-12 deficit into a 17-14 win.

Rocky Mountain Black took third 24-14 over Eagle HS.

Varsity

Things didn’t go quite according to the form sheet in the Varsity finals, either. Eagle, which went into the final day 4-8, upset Rocky Mountain 12-7, scoring the game-winner with three minutes to go and then holding on.

Meridian then upset Mountain View 14-7, with top try-scorer Nesi Tuitama going over for the game-winner with no time left on the clock.

So the two teams that had led the standings, both going 9-2-1 in the regular season, were summarily dumped.

We’d been given a harbinger of this during the week, when Mountain View needed kicks to beat Eagle, and Rocky Mountain lost 14-7 to Meridian.

In the not-so-simple bracket for five teams, Rocky Mountain played and beat Centennial to finish 4th, with Centennial 5th. Meridian advanced to the final, while Eagle and Mountain View duked it out for a chance to join them. 

Mountain View dominated that game, winning 20-0 and shutting down the Eagle attack.

That set up the final. Mountain View was the #1 seed, and Meridian #3, but everyone had been saying that Meridian was coming on strong, and that’s what they did. Up 5-0, Meridian extended their lead with Tuitama once again doing the honors. Her try, which was converted, set Meridian up with a 12-0 lead.

Mountain View responded, with Justice Rupp going over early in the second half to make it 12-5. But Meridian replied with Tuitama’s second try of the final, staking her side to a 17-5 lead. 

Back came Mountain View, but Meridian’s defense made it take far too long. Rupp did score her second, but there wasn’t enough time for a 3rd. Meridian 17, Mountain View 10.

So of the top two seeds from each bracket, none won state. While two of those seeds did indeed make the final, it was the #4 seed in JV, and the #3 seed in Varsity that came away with the trophy.