Greer Takes South Carolina Final Over Oceanside
Greer Takes South Carolina Final Over Oceanside
The Greer 76ers Rugby Club won the South Carolina Varsity Boys High School State Championship on Saturday, defeating Oceanside Collegiate Academy 20-14.
The match was held at OCA and it was a highly anticipated rematch of last year’s state championship featuring ranked teams. Coming into the match Greer carried a #37 ranking by GRR among HS club teams, and Oceanside was #34 among school teams.
Greer was led by junior scrumhalf JW Sarkees, who was awarded the game’s man of the match. Sarkees accounted for 15 kicks and 490 meters of territory gained.
“JW has been consistently booming the ball 40 plus meters all season. We made a tactical decision going into the game to play a heavy territorial kicking game. And we really needed his boot when we went down a man so early,” said Greer 76ers Head Coach Marty Sarkees.
Greer freshman flanker Cole Urban was the first to put points on the board with a 15-meter run into the try zone 18 minutes into the match. He received quick ball off a ruck Sarkees after a big line break from Greer freshman outside center Drew Smith. Sarkees successfully converted the kick.
Drew Smith then put points on the board himself 25 minutes into the match when Greer sophomore inside center Adrian Stancil dished him the ball after a line break. Smith ran the final 10-meters in for the try. The try went unconverted and the teams went into halftime with a score of Greer 12 - OCA 7.
Greer came out of halftime and relied again heavily on the boot of Sarkees. Still down a man from the early red card, Greer continued to play territory and defense taking advantage of OCA’s repeated miscues. Greer opted to kick for points 3 minutes into the second half after an OCA obstruction penalty. JW converted the penalty kick from 35 meters out making the score Greer 15 – OCA 7.
Greer added one more try at 54 minutes to take a commanding 20-7 lead. It turned out to be all the scoring they needed for the win but not without some tense moments at the end.
“I am proud of our boys. We are a young team. To be that young and face incredible adversity going down a man 5 minutes into the match to a red card for a comment made teammate to teammate. Then, going down two men for the last 13 minutes of the game with back-to-back yellow cards after already being down a man all game. They dug deep, remained confident, and relied on all our hard practices combining contact and fitness,” said coach Sarkees.
