Bishop O’Dowd won a wild Northern California Boys Varsity Silver final Saturday, beating North Sacramento 45-31 in an emotional contest.

O’Dowd’s players were physically smaller, but brought plenty of bravery, physical strength, and technique to their defensive effort. Meanwhile, North Sacramento combined plenty of size and some astounding ball-movement and line-breaking ability, but in the end couldn’t control their possession or their discipline enough.

Top photo: Flyhalf Andrew Shaw fends off some attention. Middle photo wing Christian Bratcher races in to score. Bottom photo: Flanker Sam Deck finds some space. Photos by Laurie Thirion.

O’Dowd started the game determined to make the bigger North Sac team run, so they kept out of contact and kicked to gain territory. This worked well, and then when North Sac started committing penalty - they were offside on kicks far too often - O’Dowd tapped quickly, and that put them up 14-0 early.

Led by center Paul Saccomanno, who was superb in finding gaps and making ground for Bishop O’Down, the Dragons looked in control early. But North Sacramento rebounded. when they held onto the ball in contact they caused problems, and sending their big guys up the gut allowed for space out wide. 

“When you get on the field, you’re a rugby player,” said North Sacramento Coach Tomasi Wainiqolo you’re not a forward, you’re not a back. Everybody can run, everybody can pass.”

Nate Tupai went in at the corner, but was taken down by a high tackle, making for a penalty try and an easier conversion for scrumhalf Austin Poore (who kicked all of his attempts at goal as drop kicks). Then lock Supileo Uhatafe capped off some excellent work by forwards and backs to make it 21-14.

But right at the end of the first half, North Sac ran afoul of referee Favor Taueva. He showed North Sac a yellow card for repeated infringements, and the Sacramento squad would play much of the second half down at least one player.

In the second half, Bishop O’Dowd exploded out of the blocks. Silky running and unflinching defense saw them score two tries nicely-taken open-field tries to lead 38–14. 

Those tries came from turnovers in the tackle, and also North Sac’s tendency to be offside on kicks. 

“We spent some time on double tackles and we talked about the tackle assist trying to chain saw the ball out of there,” said O’Dowd Head Coach Ray Lehner. “And we wanted to turn them around. They had some big guys and we wanted to move them back with the kick.”

O’Dowd caught a bit of a break there, as North Sacramento’s blazing fast fullback, Larry Hardy, did not play as his car broke down on the way to the game.

O’Dowd’s fullback Jose Moreno wasn’t too shabby, either, slotting into the backline effectively. But perhaps the second of those tries most epitomized O’Down’s desire to make the North Sac defense run, with lock Scott Olofson looping around Saccomanno and taking the return pass to score under the posts.

At 38-14, North Sac seemed out of it, but with David Moala constantly breaking through the line and setting up his teammates, the Warriors started to get somewhere. They scored a brilliant try from way back in their end to make it 38-21, and did it with another player in the sin-bin for repeated infringements. But after that try some words and shoving were exchanged between the two teams. Nothing much seemed to come from it until a North Sac player came in and punched a O’Dowd player. Lehner took his team off the field while referee Taueva sorted it all out, and said puncher was red-carded.

For the remainder of the match the Warriors would be short a player, and they spent the next eight minutes or so down two players. And yet, North Sac actually outscored Bishop O’Dowd during that time.

“They’re pretty elite athletes and they’re dangerous when they get the ball in hand, even shorthanded,” said Lehner. “We wanted to play a disciplined, controlled game, and that saw us through.”

O’Dowd scored quickly after that red card, with Saccomanno once again heavily involved, but Moala was brilliant in response, and set up two tries for the Warriors. 

North Sacramento rushed to try to get back to midfield, but there was never enough time. 

“Today we kind of went off our game plan - I don’t know if it was the excitement of making a final,” sad Wainqolo. “We have a lot of players new to rugby still in football habits, and sometimes that has hurt us with penalties. But we did pretty well for our first year as a team.”

Only six out of the North Sacramento squad had played rugby before this season, and they will return all but four for next year. 

“The whole season overall we did pretty well,” said Moala. “But we made minor mistakes in the final in a game we should have had under control. We weren’t disciplined enough and didn’t stick with the plan. But it was a good season overall - if you got speed and power, that’s good - but they had better technique than us, especially over rucks, and that was the difference.”

“We knew that the game wasn’t over and we couldn’t give up in the second half,” Saccomanno said of the tumultuous second period. “It wouldn’t have been possible without our coaches. Without our coaching we wouldn’t have done it. We had a great season and we’re a family.”