The Danville Oaks defeated Jesuit of Sacramento with an impressive comeback Saturday to win the Northern California Varsity Premier division.

Jesuit led at halftime, but the Oaks shut out the Marauders in the second half to take the title.

Danville won the toss and opted to go against the wind in the first half. Jesuit certainly seemed ready to take full advantage early. Captain Christian Dyer finished off a line break from wing Jayme Thomas to score a try, which Luke Thayer converted, and with Jesuit using the boot to gain good field position, Thayer added a penalty goal for an early 10-0 lead.

Danville managed to get some tracking and scored a try when wing Carlos Gomez burned down the sideline for 70 meters. Thayer added another penalty, and Justin Lego added one for Danville to make it 13-8 at halftime.

“Our defense was shaky in the first half,” said Danville program director Jon Straka. “We definitely tightened it up in the second half. We knew we would have to. Archbishop Riordan exposed us in places last week so we spent much of the week concentrating on closing up our defense.”

With the wind at their backs, the Oaks started to control field position a bit more, and the breeze certainly helped negate the Jesuit kicking game. In addition, flanker Colin Clancy was a force, roaming through the Jesuit backline and disrupting their qi. 

“Colin has been a three-year starter for us, but the last two years he was a wing,” said Straka. “Now he’s a flanker and the last three games he’s been a beat. He was a huge factor for us.”

Sickness and injury didn’t help Jesuit, who had to pull fullback George Neidhammer and props Connor Bellinger and Jacob Lee. Meanwhile, Danville worked their way back. Center Damon Wiley burst in on a good line and scored out wide to make it 13-13. The game continued as tight as before. Then, last, the Oaks got a penalty right in front of the posts. While the coaches yelled for a kick for goal to put Danville up by six, Keanu Andrade tapped and sent a long, arcing pass to center Kevin Saunders, who ran in to give the Oaks the lead - with Lego's conversion 20-13.

Then, as time wound down, Lego finally took the kicking option and slotted a penalty to make it a two-score game 23-13, and that's how it ended.

"Danville is probably one of the bigger and most athletic teams in the nation and they took their chances," said Jeusit Head Coach John Shorey. "In tough playoff games like this you only get a few chances and you need to finish them off - today we didn't."

“We had a good defensive game plan, and especially in the second half we executed,” said Straka. “We’ve been trying to play a little further away from the rucks, running our loose forwards off 10 more, and making that extra pass. I thought we did a good job of that against a really, really good team.”