West Allegheny remains the top team in Rugby Pennsylvania’s single-school Blue Division with two victories in the past week, 63-13 over Fox Park, and 8-0 over Woodlands Hills.
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Now at 6-0 the second-year team is on a roll.
West Allegheny started playing in Rugby Pa’s HS leagues last year, but formed too late to get into the single-school division, where they wanted to play. So they competed as a club in 2014, but now are playing as a single-school program, which is what Coach Mark Davis wanted.
Davis is also offensive coordinator for the West Allegheny football team, and that has helped him recruit some good athletes to his rugby team.
“Our football Head Coach [Bob Palko] knew I was a rugby player and wanted to start a team, and when Moon Area HS started, we talked about it and I decided to finally do it,” said Davis, who picked up rugby while playing football at Hiram College in Ohio. The former wide receiver/free safety and scrumhalf said he also knew that high school football in Western Pennsylvania can be a huge time commitment, so he dialed it back a little for rugby.
“We don’t practice a lot,” he said. “We’re playing for the love of the game - that’s why I’n involved. It’s a fun thing, and as a result the kids are really enjoying it.”
No. 8 and captain Sean Orsini has been a power, while flankers Matt Holmes and Alec Londino round out a snappy back row. Christian Stout at scrumhalf has also played well.
St. Joseph’s Prep, long one of the top single-school teams in Pennsylvania, is 5-0 after beating Father Judge soundly this past weekend. Monsignor Bonner also won big, over Cardinal O’Hara. Both teams are 5-0.
“We aren’t really sure where we are as a team or how good we are,” wanted St. Joe’s Coach Brian McCloskey. “We’ll find out this weekend.”
That’s because St. Joe’s and Bonner face off. But before they do that, St. Joe’s takes on Gregory the Great, which, at 3-1, still has aspirations.
St. Joe’s is led by senios Mike O’Dell at flanker, prop Matt Kiernan, fullback Pat Coar, and Matt Pagliaro at center, and junior scrumhalf Kyle Crawford.
Wing Leo Carlin and lock Matt Burdsall are expected back from injury for Thursday’s big game.
“We are solid in the pack, but not dominant, and our backs are mostly all juniors so we have been a little slow to develop in that regard,” said McCloskey. “Regardless there are some great teams here in the area and we are lucky that we have such a strong state-based organization in terms of competition.”
That list includes Cumberland Valley, which is unbeaten in the Single-School Red following their impressive 32-0 defeat of Unionville. Senior flyhalf Alex Spenceley scored three tries and added two conversions for 19 point wall on his own. Daniel Althouse and Oshean Vilaychith scored tries. CV ends the regular season against 1-3 Exeter. Conestoga, which is 3-1, lost their only game by a point to Cumberland Valley.
| Rugby Pa SS Red | W | L | T | BP | Pts |
| St Joe's Prep | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 25 |
| Msgr. Bonner | 5 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 24 |
| GGA | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 16 |
| Roman | 1 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 7 |
| Cardinal O'Hara | 1 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| LaSalle | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Father Judge | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Malvern Prep | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rugby Pa SS White | W | L | T | BP | Pts |
| Cumberland Valley | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 19 |
| Conestoga | 3 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 15 |
| Unionville | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 10 |
| Bishop Shanahan | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 6 |
| Exeter | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| State College | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Rugby Pa SS Blue | W | L | T | BP | Pts |
| West Allegheny | 6 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 28 |
| Moon Area HS Boys | 3 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 15 |
| Burrell | 3 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 15 |
| Woodland Hills | 2 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 11 |
| Central Catholic | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Fox Chapel | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Franklin Regional | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| PT Rugby | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
