La Costa Canyon defeated Cathedral Catholic 15-12 Saturday to improve to 4-0 Southern California’s Varsity Red Division.

Previously undefeated Cathedral drops to 3-1. The game was very tight all the way through, with both sides getting chances to score. The different, said LCC Head Coach Michael French, was that his La Costa players’ made decisions that worked.

“This was a tough game; half the boys on each team know each other, so there’s a lot of respect between the teams,” said French. “We came down to one or two decisions our guys made that turned out to be the right ones.”

The key period of the game came when La Costa Canyon went down to 13 players due to two yellow cards.

“We have some young players and players who are still new to the game and sometimes they don’t understand what they’re doing wrong,” said French. “But, they held Cathedral out, and that was big.”

Austin Guinn and Victor Epstein were a solid presence in the rucks and on defense. Patrick French played well once more, while Sean Lumkong laid in some big tackles and was tough to stop with the ball in hand. Wing Steven Lake also played well.

Meanwhile, Torrey Pines continued their push to make the championship game, beating Del Norte 25-17 to improve to 3-1. 

Goena scores for Torrey Pines. Denise Cavanagh photo.

Flanker Jackson Baere opened the scoring with a penalty kick, and then flyhalf Matthew Goena slipped between two defenders to score to make it 8-0. Just before the break Torrey Pines captain and prop Benny Ruffolo nabbed a Del Norte lineout and rambled in to make it 13-0.

In the second half, a TP maul put lock Blake Richards-Smith almost to the line and then prop Michael Perrone picked up and went over. No conversions yet, so it was 18-0 when Del Norte flanker Brittan Hale went over to make it 18-5. Cole Valley scored on a short lineout throw, and then Del Norte scored twice during a Torrey Pines yellow card - Hale got his second. No. 8 Zachary Zachali finished off the night for TP with a try.

Also in Varsity Red, Fallbrook got their first win of the season 20-5 over Poway.

So now it all comes down to the final two weekends of games to see who makes the championship match.

La Costa Canyon is virtually assured of that honor, as the Mavericks have Del Norte (2-2-1) and Poway (0-4) left to face. Del Norte is no pushover, but LCC is favored in both games.

Torrey Pines finishes against the very difficult St. Augustine, and Cathedral finishes against Fallbrook. But before that happens, Cathedral plays at Torrey Pines on February 5. That game will, in all likelihood, decide who joins LCC in the final.

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