De La Salle, Wolverines Secure Titles in NorCal
De La Salle, Wolverines Secure Titles in NorCal
De La Salle and the San Mateo Wolverines won their respective Northern California league championships over the weekend.
De La Salle capped off their NorCal season with a dominant 55-10 win over a very good SFGG team.
The Match started off with SFGG slicing through the DLS defensive line on the very first play of the game. Fullback Parker Beilke made a try-saving tackle to prevent SFGG from scoring, for a time. About eight minutes later some nice offloads by SFGG's forwards put Gavin Maguire over to take a 5-0 lead.
Giving up that try energized De La Salle and the Spartans responded by scoring twice in a seven-minute span. A nice short-side attack saw Chris Biller feed Lukas Platzbecker through a gap for the flankers to score. Beilke converted for a 7-5 DLS lead. A few moments later, lock Sacha Cox found a gap and offloaded to Lukas Platzbecker for a 40-meter run. A few phases later saw lock Jasper Buttles broke out of a tackle to run in to score. Sione Manoa converted and it was 14-5 at halftime.
From the start of the second half De La Salle began to find their rhythm. From the kickoff, center Chris Biller took the ball and bulled through the defense for 30 meters. A quick recycle and Cox charged on to score. After the restart, Gate was hit with a penalty for a high tackle. The Spartans took the lineout, ran a maul and, when that was stopped, peeled off the back. That run was stopped by quick recycle allowed Kai Moananu-Apela to charge through.
Now it was 24-5, and when Manoa stepped inside his tackler he was over to make it 31-5. Georga Awayers scored for SFGG to answer, but DLS began to roll after that. Manoa added a penalty and he then set up center Peter Mckenna right through a gap. A big kick from Beilke set up a scrum for DLS and that led to Buttles getting his second from in close.
The Spartan final try of the game was the longest score in DLS Rugby history. After some nice work by the Gate forwards they got the ball down close to the tryline, but knocked it on. Just one meter from their own tryline DLS prepared to kick clear. With the SFGG defense coming for him, Beilke stepped out of trouble and took off. Around the 22 he chipped over the final defender and McKenna raced on to gather the kick on its second bounce and run in a 99-meter try.
Final score 55-10. Buttles and Beilke were the players of the game for DLS.
The Wolverines are NorCal Varsity Gold champions.
Meanwhile, in the Gold division, the Wolverines held off Elsie Allen 38-31 in a very entertaining, and closely-contested final. The teams traded scores throughout the game. For the Wolverines center Kingston Keanaaina was once again a star, scoring three tries on the day. Lock Lyndon Bailey was excellent on defense as well, making some key tackles and also stealing Elsie Allen lineout ball.
It was an impressive showing for a Wolverines team that will be competing at the HS National Championships.