Crean Makes a Move in SoCal

It's time to keep a watchful eye on the Crean Lutheran Saints as the Southern California season picks up steam.

A relatively new program, Crean opened up their season with a close win over La Jolla, and then followed that up with a victory over Westview. This past weekend, the Saints beat the RC Bears 63-12 to move to 3-0.

That game was played in very tough, windy conditions with heavy gusts throughout. RC Bears adjusted better early and were up 12-5 late in the first half. To deal with that, the Saints changed to a simpler game plan. Playing into the wind in the second half Crean put pressure on the Bears team with strong carries by newcomers Zach Cranford at lock, No. 8 Daniel McEahern, and flanker Joseph Vavrina (#7.

Lucca Deocarza managed the attack well in the second half, putting Gavin Ryu away for a hat-trick of tries on the night, while scoring three himself. Ryan Barron at scrumhalf provided crisp service and scored two tries. Perhaps the highlight of the night came when Daniel McEahern picked up from the back of the scrum on the 50 yard line and reeled off a powerful run for 50 meters and a try.

Zach Cranford closed out the scorers in addition to a penalty try awarded after a high tackle on Colin Donnoly, who also impressed with his physicality.

Now what follows is a key test, as Crean faces St. Anthony, which also beat RC Bears convincingly and, last weekend, won a close one over La Jolla. Crean, who missed talented junior Jacob Bower this past weekend will be happy to have the power-running Bower back for the weekend.

All too quickly we get to the school playoffs for SoCal. In this, the Open Division, which means the teams aren't exclusively made up of players from one school, but are working toward it. 

Unofficial SoCal School team standings: