Northern California's preseason produced some head-turning results just as teams are approaching the regular league season.

De La Salle vs Jesuit

De La Salle defeated Jesuit of Sacramento 43-21 in a game that has key importance for the school-team championship, which is competed for separately from the Rugby NorCal season. Having beaten Bellarmine and Jesuit, De La Salle is certainly set for the March 5 NorCal school-team final, and likely that will be a rematch with Jesuit.

A week later Northern California will then host the School Team State Championship against the top SoCal school team. 

This game was played in front of a big crowd and was a well-played game for so early in the season.

"Jesuit was a different team then we saw on film and definitely our toughest match thus far," said DLS Head Coach Derek Holmberg. "It was a great display of high-level high school rugby, which was awesome to see."

Jesuit Head Coach Andrew Acosta said his team hung close for a while, with it being 14-3 at halftime and 19-10 at one point before a couple of penalties and a well-taken try from captain Roanin Krieger put Jesuit ahead 21-19.

But De La Salle finished stronger. "In the last 10 minutes we totally lost our structure and they made us pay," said Acosta. "They are probably one the most athletic teams I have seen in high school rugby 1-15. We look forward to playing them again in two weeks." 

For Jesuit flyhalf Fletcher Popp and prop JP Leatherby were standouts, with Kreiger scoring 16 points on the day.

SFGG vs Mother Lode

Earlier in the preseason Mother Lode defeated Jesuit 33-7, and that result is still a reminder of Mother Lode being a strong team. But SFGG is pretty good, too, and defeated Mother Lode Saturday 17-14.

It was a game that saw the teams move back and forth on the field to get themselves into scoring position, only to see the opposing defense stymie them. In the end, SFGG held on one final defensive stand to preserve the victory. No. 8 Diego Cristerna, flyhalf Paddy Casey, flanker Robbie Schaffer, and wing Christian Calero all shone for SFGG in a key final warmup game before league play starts.

East Palo Alto vs Danville

In perhaps the biggest surprise of the day, the EPA Razorhawks defeated the Danville Oaks 22-12. 

It was a very strong defensive performance by EPA a week after dropping a close one to San Mateo, and the Razorhawks held Danville scoreless in the second half.

Big runs by Vake Esafe and Sione Vaka opened up room for backs Saia Pongi, and Dane Fifita. Fifita scored twice and a heads-up try by fullback Josh White, seeing that the Danville defense was slow to re-form and picked up and just dove over closed out what had been a one-score game. Captain Saia Pongi showed strong leadership and astute attacking decisions while flanker Mateaki Malaefoou also had a big game.

There's still plenty of rugby to be played for Danville and they did get some strong performances from Nico Jiminez, Nate Comiskey, and Brock Scanlan, but EPA Head Coach Pila Pongi will be happy with how his team put aside an early loss to put in a performance like this.