Mira Costa, St Anthony Shine in SoCal Girls 7s

01.23.2026HS Girls

Mira Costa lost their opener, and have won 12 in a row since. Photo Duke Dulgarian.

Author: Alex Goff

Mira Costa and St. Anthony are looking very strong in Southern California’s two girls 7s competition.

After losing their opening match of the season 20-19, Mira Costa has emerged as the team to beat.

The Mustangs rebounded from that 20-19 loss to Cathedral Catholic by immediately beating the Dons 25-17 on the same day.

From there, Mira Costa beat Cathedral three more times over the next few weeks, including a 35-0 shutout. Four wins over View Park and wins over Patrick Henry, Mission Bay, and Fallbrook (twice) put them at 12-1.

Against Cathedral, Mira Costa is 2-1 with points for 64 and points against 52. Against the rest they are 360-45.

Last weekend it was a sweep of View Park and Fallbrook.

Mira Costa and View Park players pose together. Photo Duke Dulgarian.

Savannah Swartzlander led the team as a leader by example and on the scoreboard with 18 points.

Freshman wing Maxine Atkins scored two tries and freshman Gwen Martinez also touched down.

Caroline Rackett, Maxine Atkins, and Arianna Haight all scored three tries on the weekend.
The Mira Costa team has shown itself to beat teams and not let them get close, while also learning from some early mistakes.

This weekend Cathedral hosts Mira Costa.

That’s the girls SCIRF league, but for Southern California’s school league (it’s called a Multi-School league because school teams can field a percentage of players from other schools), it’s St. Anthony.

Running that program is Johnny Pua, who oversees the Belmont Shore youth and high school program.

He is very good t developing players and St. Anthony has gone 4-0 so far. They beat Edison 20-10, Poway 34-0, Oceanside 36-5, and LCC 25-0. So four games, and three tries allowed.

Their defense has led the way but Sydney-Rae Pua’s speed of play and decision-making gets them scoring tries, too. She created space, and some strong athletes are scoring. One of those is Layla Starks, who was a flag football player who was recruited to rugby because now she gets to make tackles. With good aggression and finisher’s speed, Starks has been a nice addition.

Lurking just behind St. Anthony is Rancho Bernardo (4-1), Oceanside (4-2), and La Costa Canyon (4-2). As you can see, two of those teams have already lost to the Saints. Rancho’s lone loss is to Poway, a team St. Anthony beat.

This week, Rancho, Vista Murrieta, San Marcos, and Edison all play each other at Edison HS. That’s on Friday night. On Saturday, St. Anthony is back on the field after a break because of the the Martin Luther King Day weekend.

St. Anthony plays Poway, Rancho, and Oceanside. A sweep by the Saints and they are control of the league.