High-Level Battle as Torrey Pines Holds Off Cathedral Cathollic

01.24.2026HS Boys

Torrey Pines is on top in SoCal's San Diego Division.

Author: Alex Goff

More drama in Southern California was Torrey Pines held off a determined Cathedral Catholic 38-33 to stake their claim to the top spot in SoCal's new Premier school league.

These two teams played to a tie in 2025, and that was before SoCal's school league and the SCIRF league joined forces. With the Falcons and the Dons now in the same league, the game had even more meaning.

Torrey Pines started well early and were certainly the better team in the first 30 minutes. The question was, could they hold on.

Right from the kickoff the Falcons put the Dons under pressure, and as a result Cathedral committed some infractions, and their discipline problems was part of the story of the first half.

Torrey Pines took a lineout and maul, kept the pressure on, ran the phases, and finally scampery flyhalf Rees Curtis found a seam and was in. Curtis converted his try, and in fact another part of the story was the goalkicking, which was excellent on both sides.

Torrey Pines generally had the run of play but it took a while for them to capitalize. Finally some strong carries from the forwards allowed No. 8 Shay Farkash to crash over. Curtis converted for a 14-0 lead.

Cathedral got some points back when a charged down kick allowed Mason Fiedler to gather the loose ball and gallop 35 meters. Trent Boyle converted and it was 14-7.

In what would be another theme of the day, Torrey Pines was quick to answer a score against, this time with a nicely-taken Curtis penalty goal.

They added to that after Cathedral tried to run out of their own 22 and had trouble with their backline alignment. The result was a knock-on, and a scrum for Torrey Pines. The Falcons attacked off that, surged to the line, and Farkash powered through for the try. Curtis converted again, getting his personal total up to 14, and Torrey Pines was in command 24-7.

Or were they? Crucially, Cathedral took the momentum as the half ended. They were held up in-goal, and kept working after the ensuing goalline dropout. The forwards worked hard to recycle, and eventually wing Miles Larson dove over. Boyle converted brilliantly and the teams went into the break with the score Torrey Pines 24 and Cathedral 14.

The fixes were installed for the second half for Cathedral—give yourself time and space to execute your passes, and don't give up silly penalties.

It was Torrey Pines that was penalized early. Cathedral opted for the scrum, which, wisely, kept the Falcons' forwards bunched up. They went wide immediately, were stopped, but center Kingston Hawkins was able to sidestep his way over, set up by a smooth catch-pass from flyhalf Dylan Trower.

Boyle slotted the conversion from the touchline, and suddenly we had a one-score game at 24-21.

Both teams were hard-hitting in their defense and the score stayed 24-21 for about 20 minutes. It wasn't until well into the second half that anyone scored. Torrey Pines had weathered a bit of the storm, and then got a penalty. They took the lineout, thundered ahead, and lock Liam Fechko was the man to take it over. Conversion good again, and it was 31-21.

Cathedral answered. Torrey Pines countered on a kick and set a ruck just inside the Cathedral half. The ball kind of rolled out the side of the ruck and lock AJ Trudell swooped in, gathered the ball, and took off. The Torrey Pines players were ready for offense, and this took them by surprise. Trudell showed a nice turn of pace and 55 meters later he had scored.

Boyle, of course, converted, and it was 31-28. Cathedral seemed pointed to complete the comeback. However, the Torrey Pines forwards took over, kept asking questions of the defense. Finally, Farkash, who had enjoyed a massive game on defense as well, dove over for his third.

Curtis converted for a personal haul of 18 points.

Cathedral wasn't done, however. With time winding down Trower launched a beautifully-weighted kick that bounced high. Hawkins jumped for it, nabbed it, and was in at the corner.

Boyle, apparently, is indeed human and couldn't get the conversion over, but the two kickers were 10-for-11 on the day. The game, fittingly, ended when Farkash forced a holding-on penalty and Curtis tapped to himself before kicking to touch to end the game.

This was. yet another brilliantly-played high school game involving teams from this league. Torrey Pines won on forward power and keeping the Cathedral backs in check at key moments.

Torrey Pines 38
Tries: Curtis, Farkash 3, Fechko
Convs: Curtis 5
Pens: Curtis

Cathedral Catholic 33
Tries: K. Hawkins 2, Fiedler, Larson, Trudell
Convs: Boyle 4