The Los Angeles conference of the Southern California Varsity Red competition kicked off Friday with Mira Costa taking down Redondo Union 55-5.

After graduating 13 of their start­ing 15 from last year, the Mustangs have had some serious rebuilding to do. However, the new-look Mustangs handled the day just fine against a Redondo Seahawks playing their first varsity rugby game ever.

 The match started out slow, a bit like two boxers trying to assess their opponent, as the two sides traded possessions around midfield numerous times. The scoring finally opened ten minutes into the contest when Mira Costa captain and No. 8 Jonah Tavai picked the ball off a scrum and rambled 36 meters for the opening try. That’s all that was needed to open the floodgates, as the Mustangs then piled on the points. Backs captain and outside center Kaden Lov­ersky converted to make it 7-0. Following the restart, Tavai took the ball, passed to lock Max Stewartson, who offloaded out of the tackle to a streaking Loversky, who raced in for the try. A few minutes later it was Tavai again this time from 36 meters out, as he took advantage of some nice passing from his teammates to exploit the overlap. Loversky converted.

The Mustangs found paydirt against when inside center Slade Gordon set up new­comer Jackson Fischer, and wing notched his first ever Mira Costa try. Not long after that Tavai scored from 22 meters out. That was followed up by a tremendous effort by prop Reed Vabrey to secure a loose ball. He drove to within a meter of the Seahawk tryline and hooker Jerum Cortez finished the play for the score.

Redondo finally got on the board by taking advantage of a Costa miscue on the restart and aggressive play from the Seahawks produced the first points in the history of the pro­gram. However, Loversky made sure that their celebration was cut short, as he took a ball dur­ing some very loose play and completely outmaneuvered the entire Seahawk defense for an­other Mustang try. Flanker Rob Fiene got one of his own to run in from about 30 meters, and Tavai capped it off to make the final score 55-5 (officially recorded as 45-5 as SoCal Youth Rugby does not record winning margins greater than 40).

The Los Angeles conference of the Varsity Red includes Mira Costa, Redondo, View Park Prep, and St. John Bosco. View Park and Bosco met up Saturday, and View Park is under a bit of a rebuilding process after graduating several longtime starters, many of which were their quickest players. Bosco, led by big and athletic flyhalf George Holani, won going away 50-5.

The Varsity Red division in Southern California is made up of teams following California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) rules, and all of the teams in LA and San Diego are 100% single-school (no outside students). However, the leagues are small, and LA will see teams play each other twice, rather than cross over to play teams in San Diego. As a result, the league has become a little more insular.