This was a complete turnaround for the game. But San Mateo can score from anywhere. And the brothers who had helped spark a St. Francis All-California win are now entering club rugby at San Mateo—they would be the Keanaaina brothers. Two of them (there are six) were Kaimani and Motu. They were brilliant as the Wolverines came back.
Kaimani Keanaaina scored three tries, one converted, and now it was 38-34 for Lamorinda. With the conversion kicks not going over, the Wolverines would need to get over that tryline to win.
With time expired, the Wolverines had the ball and, as long as the play didn't go dead, they had one more chance. They worked their way down to the goalline and Lamorinda battled long and hard to keep their lead.
Eventually, however, the dam broke and Haimani Keanaaina was able to go over for the try. Pifeleti converted, but they had the lead already. Final score 41-38, and the San Mateo Wolverines are returning to Elkhart, Ind. for the HS National Championships.
Lamorinda Head Coach Ray Lehner was gracious in defeat: "San Mateo are quite the team. Most of their players are coming off a state championship win for their high school St Francis. We really thought we had them with two minutes to go. It's gutting, but we couldn't have asked for a better rugby match."
Man of the Match honors were shared across both sides with Parrott and Gerbelot taking the honors for Lamorinda, and Kaimani Keanaaina and Judah Reed for the Wolverines.
The Wolverines opened their season with a 97-0 loss to the Charlotte Cardinals touring in February. But that was not a reflection of where San Mateo could go, as many of their players were still in the school season.
"Once we got all of those players back with us, the morale on the team changed 100%" said Head Coach Ene Pifeleti. "You could see it at training. We had more numbers, the boys were enjoying themselves, energized, happy, and talking. But this game was really tough. Lamorinda is a very good team and a lot of teams, when they give up three tries in the first 20 minutes, would be done. They weren't done. They fought and came back."
Always proud of their forwards, the Wolverines have a special group of backs this year, with Pifeleti at flyhalf distributing and kicking better and better. But the guy doing the tough work and leading by example was probably No. 8 Ben Pahulu, who toughed out a couple of stingers to make sure San Mateo pulled this out.
