Edina overcame an early deficit to beat Minnetonka 22-10 Saturday and win the Minnesota Youth Rugby Boys HS championship.

Minnetonka did take a 5-0 lead, capitalizing on some Edina errors. And in fact it wasn't really a comfortable run for Edina - last week they needed overtime to get through the semis against Duluth.

Edina Head Coach Mark Dalton said one of the keys for his team was defense.

"Minnetonka is very dangerous when given space and we had a tough time with their counterattack," said Dalton. "They play an expansive game and their backline is very dangerous. We stressed at training that we needed to put their backs under pressure and take away their space so they couldn't get their offense going.  Since Minnetonka is so strong on offense we also needed to play a possession game to keep the ball away from them. We didn't do that in the beginning of the first half and played too much defense and gave the ball away too much and they scored first.  We adjusted and maintained possession for most of the rest of the game."

After giving up that early try Edina scored 22 straight points with tries from Nick Bloom, Evan Holm, and Will Hoff. Theo Madison converted two of those three tries and added a penalty goal for a 22-5 lead.

Evan Holm, left, and Theo Madison, right, were among the Edina standouts.

Minnetonka came back with a try later in the game, but needed two more - two more they wouldn't get.

Dalton said his Edina team trained very hard for this game, especially on defensive. Along with the try-scorers, No. 8 Joe Pfefferle played his best game of the year, and Mario del Rio was also excellent on defense. Spencer Olson made an impact off the bench, while Madison, along with his goalkicking, made a big tackle in the second half that spurred his team. Sohpomore Dylan Hore and freshman Weston Shively joined upperclassmen Holm, Hoff, Bloom, Mike Lyons, and Devan Hunt in a solid team effort.

"I've been coaching this team for almost ten years now and this season was special because it was a transition year for the club as we lost one of our key coaches, Chris Babiash," said Dalton. "We've been in the championship match six years in a row and won it the last five.  One of the reasons we have so much success at the varsity level is because of the strength of our JV team.  Not many people realize this but we haven't lost a JV match in three seasons and I would put our JV team against most of the varsity teams in the state.  Next year is going to be fun as we have some really promising sophomores moving up to varsity."

In other action in Minnesota, Eagan defeated Duluth 41-17 to take 3rd. 

Defense carried the day for Edina.