St. Francis Shocks De La Salle in NorCal
St. Francis Shocks De La Salle in NorCal
Northern California seems to be full of surprises and few were as head-turning as St. Francis beating De La Salle over the weekend.
Certainly thought of as a top-five contender, De La Salle found themselves dealing with an athletic and improving St. Francis side, a new single-school program in the region. St. Francis is coached by Mark Scharrenberg, who played 38 times for the USA as a center and he has been enjoying the new gig.
"What I want is for these players to be able to play in college wherever they play," said Scharrenberg. "So we've been concentrating on skills and basic structure. We have a good mix of kids who have played a lot, kids who have played a little, and kids who haven't played before at all. They're coming together."
St. Francis started off on fire against De La Salle, with flyhalf Kingston Keanaaina causing the Spartans all sorts of problems. Twice he waved through and around a bevvy of tacklers to score and give the Lancers a 14-0 lead, with Andrew Scharrenberg's conversions.
Both tries were from long range and both times plenty of DLS players had a chance to take Keanaaina down, but couldn't.
"I can't tell you how special of an athlete that player is," said DLS Head Coach Derek Holmberg.
After those two tries De La Salle managed to claw back into the game with a strong run from Tommy Rainsford and a link with center Chris Biller, who was in at the corner. A conversion and a penalty right on the stroke of halftime made it 14-10.
In the second half DLS started to gain some momentum and St. Francis started to be penalized. One such penalty led to a maul and then a quick tap that set up hooker Owen McInerny. DLS now led 17-14 and St. Francis could be forgiven perhaps for shrugging and saying "we put up a good fight."
But they didn't. DLS kicked a long clearance kick that turned out to be just outside the 22. So the lineout went all the way back inside the DLS half. A free kick was then called against De La Salle and the Lancers sent their big forwards, led by tighthead Solomon Tupa, surging to the line. The forwards bashed it over—Tupa actually getting the touchdown—and Scharrenberg hit the tough conversion to make it 21-17 for St. Francis.
De La Salle pushed the envelope a bit too much and got a couple of yellow cards.
St. Francis came very close to scoring but were held up in-goal. De La Salle got out of it but then were pinged for diving into the scrum illegally—yellow card #1 with 15 minutes to go. The next card came for a ruck infraction. Still, down two players De La Salle came back. They put St. Francis under pressure and the Lancers took a yellow card for a dangerous tackle. Finally fullback Parker Beilke placed a nicely-weighted grubber kick for center Lucas Meranda to chase down. Beilke was good on the tough conversion to make it 24-21 De La Salle.
St. Francis got one more shot, worked their way down the field, lost the ball, then got it back. With the turnover St. Francis players ran all the way across the field, found a gap, and then Naia Alatini raced onto a pass and burst down the sideline past the grasping hands of various DLS defenders. That was the game-winner.
There was actually time left for De La Salle to keep going, and after they blocked the conversion, the Spartans stormed back. But eventually a knock-on called at the lineout ended a very emotional, and slightly wild game.
For De La Salle this was their first loss since April 2019. For St. Francis, this is just the beginning. With solid support from the athletic department and the school, they are looking to build a new program in one of American rugby's hotbeds.
"We can improve," said Scharrenberg. "We were good at the breakdown and with our tackling, but offensively we got a little one-dimensional. We'll work on that. I didn't know what to expect with this group but the thing I am most happy about is that they kept playing hard late in the game."
For De La Salle, it was a good lesson.
"It was a great game," said Holmberg. "They were gracious hosts and provided some great BBQ after the match. They have a mix of boys who have played rugby and a bunch of football athletes. Add in coaches that played themselves at a high level and you have the makings of something special. I was very proud of our boys. They never backed down and made some very good decisions throughout the match. This is only their second match together as a group and they have made leaps and bounds from Week 1."
