Overtime Drama as Torrey Pines Defeats Mira Costa
Overtime Drama as Torrey Pines Defeats Mira Costa
While one of the Southern California Varsity Red semifinal scorelines was relatively one-sided (La Costa Canyon Rolls to Varsity Red Final), the other, held Saturday night, was as tight as possible.
Mira Costa took on Torrey Pines in a thriller that went the distance, and more. The Mustangs of Mira Costa, ranked #10 by Goff Rugby Report, and th Falcons of Torrey Pines, ranked #12, were evenly-matched, and showed it. On a very breezy night the Torrey Pines Falcons used the wind to their advantage as each time they got inside the Mustangs half. Mira Costa got into repeated penalty trouble, and Torrey Pines kept putting those penalties over the bar.
Torrey Pines opened the scoring early with a couple of penalty kicks from their freshman phenom, Oren Cargill. Cargill deftly handled the Falcons kicking needs on the night, and made a number of try-saving tackles from the fullback spot, as the Mustangs strong running game repeatedly punched holes in the Torrey Pines backline. Midway through the first half Mira Costa capitalized on one of their many forays into the Torrey half. No. 8 Jonah Tavai took the ball off a scrum won by hooker Callum Lapper from about 42 meters out and drove deep into Falcon territory. Tavai set the ruck and scrumhalf Harrison Dulgarian fed flyhalf Kaden Loversky, who exploited a gap in the Torrey Pines defense to score in the corner.
Penalties continued to plague Mira Costa, much to their frustration, and Cargill was good on another kick to make it 9-5 for Torrey Pines. But Mira Costa replied. Tavai was in the middle of the action once more when tapped quickly on a penalty and just blew through the Torrey Pines defense. Loversky added the conversion, to give the Mustangs a 12-9 halftime lead.
In the second half, Torrey Pines was able to work with the ball and ran their forwards flat and wide. Caleb Wilson and captain Jackson Baere made sizeable gains. Another penalty was awarded inside Costa's half, and with although the Torrey Pines players were pleading to have a go at the tryline, they leadership pointed to the posts, and Cargill put the kick over to tie the game 12-12.
After Torrey Pines received the restart and sent the ball back into Costa's half, Torrey scrumhalf Beau Morgans pressured a kick from a scrum, blocked the kick, and chased it down for the try to put Torrey Pines up 19-12 with under five minutes to play. Mira Costa's home field fans came alive as did the Mustangs. They kicked off and were quickly awarded a penalty when a Torrey Pines player left his feet in a ruck. Knowing they needed a converted try, Costa tapped quickly.
The Mustangs powered through, bashed into the Torrey Pines defense, and were held up in-goal. From the ensuing scrum, Costa put Tavai, normally their No. 8, out to the inside center position. They won the scrum, sent the pass out to Tavai, and he bash and smashed his way to the try.
The conversion from Loversky was good, and the game ended as his game-tying kick sailed over the bar.
So on to overtime. Torrey Pines won the coin flip and received the ball going into the wind. Three minutes later they were able to work the ball over for the try, and Cargill converted. Then they played long ball, kicking deep to make Mira Costa work for it. Costa kept running at the Pines defense, and TP's tacklers held. The game ended 26-19 for Torrey Pines.
After the game Mira Costa Head Coach Duke Dulgarian expressed pride in his players and frustration at all the penalties his team was incurring. Costa also had some injuries in the backline that hurt them, and that also contributed to the Mustangs' 22-game home win streak being broken.
For Torrey Pines Head Coach Matty Sandoval, this was a nailbiter.
"I'd heard all about their No. 8, and he was more than advertised," said Sandoval. "I've never seen a player with that combination power and skill in my years coaching high school rugby. Their big number four was a handful as well. Great in the air and very tough to tackle. Overall, they are an extremely tough team, and a class act. They took a lot of starch out of us, but hopefully we can regroup to give LCC decent opposition in the final."
Torrey Pines plays rivals La Costa Canyon next week in the Varsity Red final. Mira Costa is slated to meet St. John Bosco for 3rd. Last week, Torrey Pines and LCC met up in league play, with LCC winning 14-13.
