Cavemen and Herriman led the way in the Puriri Memorial Invitational over the weekend in St. George, Utah, but other teams showed well in this preseason rugby event.
Held in memory of Ra Puriri and Michael Puriri, both instrumental in the growth of rugby in Utah, the PMI is a must-play event for teams in the Beehive State and also teams from out-of-state.
Teams play three shortened games in a schedule designed to provide the right competition and testing ground for everyone. And while the games weren't nailbiters, nine of the 15 games were decided by 18 or less.
In the end five teams ended up 2-1—Olympus, Brighton, Mountain View, Red Mountain, and Herriman. Cavemen was the only team to go 3-0.
Brighton, playing as a single school team now, was one of the breakout teams, beating East HS and Olympus. Another team to show well was Mountain View, which lost only to Herriman, and beat Brighton and Hawai'ian power Kahuku.
Lisiate Valeti, Siakale Lehauli, and Easton Kojima led the effort past the Red Raiders, while against Brighton, captain Marlee Iosefo, Beckham Curtis, and Wesley Yearsley were outstanding.
Iosefo, Valti, and Kojima are all part of a crucial senior leadership group, along with Hunter Hopoate and Warren Matia. But it could be the younger players who make MV go.
Cavemen Go 3-0
For Cavemen, they found some tough competition in Red Mountain, who suffered their only loss of the weekend to the American Fork team.
Paced by two tries from fullback Fisher Baldwin, and tries from No. 8 Easton Simmons, lock Latu Moeai, and center Ben Iongi, and with flyhalf Luke Vernon convering four of the five tries, Cavemen took the game 33-15.
They also shut out East HS with some enterprising back play. Baldwin scored, as did wing Aiseah Hofoka, center Latani Vaki, and, once again, Simmons.
But this game was a showcase of the Cavemen defense.
Meanwhile, Herriman beat Mountain View 36-15 and LCA 26-12.
Wing/fullback Troy Ellermeier ended the weekend with four tries, and lock Kemper Castro, prop Timote Kinikini, and flyhalf Asher Coleman, all part of last season's national finalists, were all very good.
Herriman did have the services of MacRae Parker, their outstanding USA age-grader, but he had just wrapped up the wrestling season, finishing 2nd in the state in his weight class. As a result, the Mustangs didn't play him a ton.
"The best part of the weekend is that we got 40 players at least one-and-a-half games of playing time, and that's always what we want to get out of this," said Herriman Head Coach Jeff Wilson.
