It was a wild weekend in Rugby Washington as the two teams who had started the season 3-0 went down to defeat.

The Chuckanut Bay Steamers were shocked 44-7 by Kent, showing that the Crusaders learned the lessons of the previous week’s loss to Liberty. That moved Kent to 2-2 and Chuckanut to 3-1. But Chuckanut kept pace with Liberty as the Patriots were upset 17-14 by Budd Bay.

This shouldn’t have been as much of a surprise, said Budd Bay Coach Trevor Anderson. It was just that the Barbarians had not had any warmup games before league play started.

The Barbarians met Liberty’s physicality and in fact might have outplayed them in that aspect of the game. The forwards scored three tries for Budd Bay, while the backs played stalwart defense.

“This is a group that has played together for years,” said Anderson. “They have claimed three U17 state titles. We can be scary.”

No. 8 Isaiah Bird was a powerhouse once more and was a menace at the breakdown, while giving his team good go-forward off the scrums. Prop Johnathan Lazik, was solid up front, rucked well, and scored two tries. Flanker Levi Krocker also scored for the Barbarians and played well, while fellow back-rower Tommy Hunkin constantly put Liberty under pressure.

“Although, the wet conditions made for a forward-driven game, the backline defense came up big stopping a dangerous Liberty attack,” said Anderson. “Joel Jones is as close to a tackling machine as you can get at fullback.”

Budd Bay is looking to get Lui Sitama back from injury and that will help them continue to improve.

And also in Washington, Eastside edged Seattle 13-12, sending the defending state champs to an 0-4 start. Eastside took a 6-0 in a defensive battle, pinning Seattle in their half by using the boot of Alfonzo Cornu. Seattle stormed back with two unanswered tries, taking a 12-6 lead at the 50th minute. But Eastside battled back and Anthony Naveres scored a try in the corner. Cornu made a clutch conversion from the sideline to put his side up with ten minutes to go, and that’s how it ended.

It’s hard to imagine any league with as much parity from top to bottom. Seattle is not a bad team by any stretch of the imagination, but has lost all four games, two by tiny margins and none by more than 12. Budd Bay started 0-2, but the Barbarians have beaten Kent and Liberty in consecutive weekends. Six more weeks remain in the season, and it’s anyone’s competition.