Much on the Line in SoCal Varsity White
Much on the Line in SoCal Varsity White
It’s already Week Three in Southern California’s Varsity White Division.
In the Inland Conference, 1-0 Dead Rabbits play a non-league game against LA team Mira Costa after beating Desert Sands a week ago. Desert Sands, now 0-1, take on Citrus Valley, who lost 48-17 to View Park Prep in a non-league game.
Elijah Willham scored two second-half tries, both from long range, to help the Rabbits hop past the Harlequins. Fullback Donald Mitchell scored a try on a kick counter-attack from 90 meters out, and forward Sampson Vaotuua finished off a long, multi-phase attack.
“I’m so proud of them. This was big,” coach Steve Lohmeyer said. “We were supposed to be annihilated.”
Lohmeyer said the star of the match was Dakota Reames who started at flyhalf for Jacob Breshears, who broke his collarbone earlier in the week.
In San Diego, HTH/Point Loma and San Pasqual are 1-0 ad move on to play Mission Vista and Patrick Henry, respectively. Rancho Bernardo (0-1) faces UC/Clairmont.
In the LA Conference, it might have already been decided after the opening weekend game between Dana Hills and View Park Prep. Dana Hills won that game 26-22, and then handed Mira Costa their first loss ever last week.
View Park rebounded with that win over Citrus Valley (“it was good to score some tries,” said Head Coach David Hughes), but the players are still ruing that loss to Dana Hills.
“It was a period of ten minutes at the end of the first half and ten minutes at the beginning of the second half where they scored four tries that hurt us,” said Hughes.
Dana Hills runs a forward-oriented game on a narrow field, and that narrow field certainly helps them, especially against the speed-oriented View Park team. View Park now looks ahead to St. John Bosco, who haven’t played yet due to football playoffs.
“We tied Bosco last year and they re a tough team, very athletic, defend well, and they can run,” said Hughes. View Park might have the edge in rugby knowledge, but Hughes said St. John is a dark horse to win the conference. “I think we distribute the ball more, but they are very dangerous. They defend well and hurt you with turnovers. We distribute the ball more, but we have to do that.”
Having played Dana Hills close (26-22) View Park, led by the inventive Jabari Fernandes and Malik Montez-Hendon, feel they are right there at the top, but to win the Conference they now need someone to upend Dana Hills … and to keep winning.
St. John Bosco continues to benefit from a solid relationship between their rugby team and their highly-ranked football program.
As he was quoted when the rugby team started, Football Head Coach Jason Negro “would rather see my guys running up and down the field with a ball in their hands, rather than in front of a computer playing video games, in their off-season. When they finish rugby and return to football camp, there stamina is much better and their hand, ball, eye coordination is much improved. ”
Now 2-0, Dana Hills gets their first away game of the season, against a Palos Verdes team that could well be the outfit that unseats them. Palos Verdes had much of their team play in the football playoffs, and Head Coach Jeremy Wilkinson has been hard at work trying to channel that success and at the same time shave off some football habits.
“You usually need two to three weeks to turn a football player back into a rugby player,” he said.
