American River College won the California Conference Northern California championship Saturday with an emphatic 68-19 win over San Jose State.
ARC set the tone in this final with a try two minutes into the match—Tre Robinson once again scoring for the Beavers. SJSU answered and in fact led into the second 20 minutes. But tries from Julian Niulala, Caleb Smithee, Henry Westerlund, and Haydn Williams in the space of about 15 minutes blew the game open at 35-14.
Juancarlos Romero was good on all of the conversions. He stepped side in that role for Callan Edgerton, who was 4-four-five in the second half as ARC pulled away. Scrumhalf Dylan Alexander excelled on the day.
In the California Conference Southwest, Arizona State is in control. They beat Loyola Marymount 67-9 with tries from nine different players—only Austin Cox and Jacob Hurl scored more than one. Six conversions meant Hurl logged 22 points.
At 5-0 in conference play with the average score 60-8, ASU has clinched the top spot in this conference. The Sun Devils have one more game, against 2nd place Claremont Colleges, but CC is 3-2 and cannot catch ASU.
In the Florida Collegiate Conference, Millennia Atlantic retained their unbeaten record with a 59-3 defeat of Florida Atlantic. This game was perhaps a bit closer than the score might indicate. MAU scored three converted tries in the final five minutes, indicating that fatigue had crept into the FAU side. But through 70 minutes they had hung one a bit better.
Valentino Minoyetti scored two tries in a game where the Macaws, like the Sun Devils, spread the wealth.
With this win MAU is 5-0, just ahead of Florida State, who sit 5-1. FSU's lone loss is, of course, to Millennia Atlantic.
MAU and FSU play again on March 28 in a rematch of a game that was 45-19 for the Macaws on March 7. That was the most points MAU had allowed in a game. After that, and Florida vs South Florida, we should have the seedings for the semifinals on April 4, leading into the April 11 final.
