Minnesota Youth Rugby’s most favored team, Edina, started off the season as expected, defeating STMA 80-5 Friday as a full slate of games in the state kicked off.

“This is a big year for us because we graduated 30 seniors last year,” said Edina Coach Chris Biabash. “It’s going to be a test of my coaching and of the strength of our JV team. We have 37 players who have not played or are new to the team.”

Nineteen of those new players were in the game-day squad Friday.

“We started slowly but we started to get into the game flow in the second half,” said Biabash.

It didn’t hurt that HS All American Evan Holm was there, and he scored five tries on the day, setting up three more.

And when the Edina backline made tackles, it was usually Holm who was over the ball, creating a turnover.

Hooker Sam Benkowski has already emerged as a leader. The versatile athlete can play almost anywhere on the field, and Quinn Gilligan also looks to be an experienced head on a team that has very little experience.

Also winning over the weekend, Minnetonka beat Southside 45-5, St. Cloud beat Eden Prairie 92-5, Plymouth beat Robbinsdale/Brooklyn 24-12, Eagan beat North Suburban 29-20, and South River beat Faribault 24-7. On Saturday, Hopkins, widely thought to be one of the teams who can catch Edina, beat Duluth 29-17. Hopkins and Edina meet on Friday.