The Budd Bay Barbarians of Olympia Wash. upset Liberty 28-23 to win the Washington state championship Saturday in Seattle.

Rena Fay Carlson photo.

Liberty came into the game 10-1 in regular-season and playoff games, but that one loss had come at the hands of Budd Bay, which had worked through a 5-5 regular season. The Barbarians had been the only team to beat Liberty through, and Liberty Coach Jeff Candler had said before the playoffs that he expect Budd Bay to be a problem.

Meanwhile, Budd Bay was a different team from the one that opened the season with losses to Chuckanut and Eastside.

“The Rugby Washington season is a tough season,” said Budd Bay Head Coach Trevor Anderson. “We don’t really have any preseason games and so it takes us a while to really get going. But then it’s ten weeks of games with no breaks, no spring break. It’s a grind, but it also allows us to learn and improve. Our U19 and our U17 team both got better over the season. We came out of those first games feeling like they were winnable, and we just needed to keep working.”

Budd Bay beat Kent and then Liberty in close matches, but then kind of lost the plot against Seattle, a team that always gives them problems.

So they entered April with a 2-3 record, but then beat Chuckanut and Eastside before losing close ones to Kent and Liberty. The Kent game was somewhat galling because the Barbarians scored seven tries, but had both goalkickers unavailable. With Lui Sitama back as a counter-attacking weapon at fullback and as goalkicker, the Barbarians started to bring it together. They beat Seattle 38-27 to secure the #3 seed in the playoffs, and then beat Kent 36-28 in the semi.

In the final, Liberty ran out to a lead of 18-8 in the first half.

“We knew what we wanted to do, but it didn’t pan out the way we wanted, and we didn’t really get the ball,” said Anderson.

Sitama scored a try and a penalty, and then, just before halftime, Uriah Tuuao went over, gutting it out through a wall of defenders.

“We got that try and thought, OK, we can do this,” said Anderson. “We wanted to go through extended phases with the forwards and make their forward do more work. If we did that, we felt we could win. We were a bit indisciplined in the red zone in the first half, but at halftime we felt it was a new game. We just needed to stick to the plan and sustain possession.”

Scrumhalf Anthony Edwards was outstanding and kept the offense chugging along. The #9 scored a try and was named player of the game.That try made it 20-18 for Budd Bay, and then No. 8 Isaiah Bird, who has played some inspired rugby this season and has been cruelly left off the Washington select side, thundered over to make it 25-18.

“The guys showed a lot of composure,” said Anderson. “And to make the right decision when we got a late penalty to go for points was crucial. Lui hit the kick and that put us up by two scores.”

Up 28-18, Budd Bay held on. Liberty scored late, but couldn’t get the trying score.

For Anderson, Zane Wolf and flanker Tommy Hunkin had big games, getting the team plenty of go-forward. Unfortunately, Hunkin had to leave the game injured, and in came Gabrial Ybarra, normally a prop or lock, who took over where Hunkin left off.

“He was just really aggressive and confrontational, and late in the game he gave us a spark,” said Anderson. “This is a great win for us. We have kids from all walks of life in this team. They come from different schools and different backgrounds and probably wouldn’t even know each other if they didn’t come to training. But they worked hard and did extra work to get here, and we’ve got a lot of juniors coming back, so it’s good.”

Notes: Full disclosure, Goff Rugby Report Editor Alex Goff is a co-founder of the Budd Bay rugby club and helped coach the boys team in 2000-2002.

In other Boys HS Rugby Washington finals, Chuckanut beat Liberty 43-25 in the U17 final. Rainier Plateau defeated Schoolhouse in the DII final. The Eastside Lions beat Rainier Plateau 42-26 to win the U15 state championship.