TREASURE ISLAND CA-The Carmichael Cougars scored 24 points in the first half and then withstood a late O'Dowd onslaught to hold on to win the Northern California Boys DII championship Saturday.

"The Cougars are a great outfit they play some very exciting rugby. They were well organized and athletic, some impressive team speed,” said O’Dowd Coach Ray Lehner. “As much as I’d like to say otherwise they earned that victory."

the Cougars started very quickly, and that, said Coach Ian Meadows, has been his team’s hallmark.

“We always want to start strong,” he said. “We have most of our team being first-year players, we are fortunate to have some good athletes and some smart players. They’ve learned a lot.”

Eight of the 15 starts Saturday were playing in their first season, and 15 of the game day squad of 23 were rookies. The Del Campo HS school offers no support to the team, and in fact it is very difficult for students to play rugby without drawing the ire of the football coaches.

This means that football players rarely take up rugby until their senior year. They are good athletes, and know how to work hard, but they don’t know a lot about rugby.

While this is an unfortunate situation - no coach owns a players’s free time, and any smart football coach knows that rugby can improve an athlete’s tackling, ball-handling, decision-making, and fitness - the Cougars have overcome this problem by working on developing players in middle school, and taking what they can get and running with it.

Meadows gave all the credit to the hard work of the players, and alumni coaches Gino Jackson, Mike Sarantakos, and Trevor Burnett.

“Our success is due to them,” he said.

The Cougars scored four tries in the first 25 minutes of the game. Flyhalf Austin Ayala, lock Clemente Rocha, No. 8 Edwin Faaliga, and lock Memo Rocha all touched down. Tui Vaivai converted the first two to stake the Cougars to a 24-0 lead.

Slowly, O’Dowd began to get into it. Fullback Robert Crosby ran in a try and converted just before halftime. Then early in the second half, center Matt Won scored, and with Crosby’s conversion, it was a 24-14 game.

But after that, the Cougars defense strengthened, and O’Dowd crossed the line only once more - hooker Matt Lydon doing the honors. The Cougars held on 24-19.

"We started slow and put ourselves in just too deep a hole to climb out of,” said O’Dowd’s Lehner. “We definitely had chances to level the score late after periods of sustained pressure on their goalline but couldn't finish it off. "I am proud of my team and especially center Matt Won, eightman Tony Cardenas, and wing Christian Bratcher, they just refused to go quietly, at times taking the game into their own hands but alas too little too late."