SoCal Playoffs, Frostbite, and Rankings Clashes in HS Rugby This Week

The Frostbite Tournament in Landisville, Pa. is an opener for several HS teams in the state.

Yes, as the name implies and the weather report confirms, it will be cold. Brisk, one might say. And yet it's a warmup. There are A sides and B sides and C sides, and teams from various divisions. Keep an eye on the DI division which is St. Joseph's Prep, Berks, West Shore, and Bishop Shanahan playing a round-robin over shortened games.

This weekend in Florida, Cardinal Gibbons vs Okapi is a meeting of probably the top two teams in the league. Boca Raton might want to argue with that and might well end up in 1st if Gibbons wins because Boca and Okapi have played one game more than Gibbons so far.

That extra game was a tie between the two. Gibbons, meanwhile, is 3-0 and playing some very impressive defense. Right now we have Gibbons ranked #7 among single-school teams and Okapi #28 among clubs. If Okapi wins or gets very close, they should move up dramatically.

The SCIRF league has the top two in Cathedral Catholic and St. Augustine. This is a home game for the Saints and Head Coach Eric Dent said he expects a big, vocal crowd and hopes that will create some energy.

The winner of this game, #15 vs #14, will win the league, win the Charity Cup, and win or retain the Titan Shield which is a challenge trophy between the two teams. The winner will also earn top seed going into playoffs, which essentially means they play Mira Costa in the semis, not Fallbrook.

Watch in a couple of weeks then St. Augustine hosts Cathedral, Regis Jesuit (Denver), and St. Joseph's Prep (Philadelphia) in a really interesting invitational.

Texas sees a massive clash with Strake Jesuit at Dallas Jesuit. These two have become the strongest school teams in Texas and with Strake ranked #17 by GRR among school teams and Dallas Jesuit ranked #28, this is a rankings-affecting game, too. Strake tighthead Michael Ukona has been a workhorse.

In Southern California's other competitions, it's playoff time. San Marcos has suffered too many injuries to be able to play Torrey Pines in one D1 semifinal. The other semi, San Clemente at Long Beach Poly, will be played the middle of next week. Meanwhile, in the Open Division, La Jolla takes on Carlsbad and St. Anthony plays Crean all tonight (Friday night) at the fields of Crean Lutheran HS. These will be shortened games, with the  3rd-4th and final game also played Friday night. 

And in Northern California, rankings clashes include #17 Mother Lode vs #25 East Palo Alto and #26 Danville vs #12 SFGG.

Don't forget the Ra Puriri Invitational that we previewed here>>

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