On a day honoring the graduating seniors of Jesuit High School, the Sacramento-based Marauders faced a very skilled team from Rangitoto College in New Zealand, and came away victorious. 

Rangitoto was coming off two tour wins against Bellarmine Prep (65-14) and the Solo Falcons in Dixon (34-14).

Both teams tried to play rugby with ball in hand and after both teams missed penalties, the boys from Rangitoto drew first blood with a penalty and then added a long range try off a scrum.  Once Jesuit was able to maintain some possession they stretched the opposition and started to find some gaps.  Senior Captain Christian Dyer scored the first try in the corner set up with a brilliant offload from scrumhalf Carlos Ramirez.  Luke Thayer, who was carrying an injury, missed the conversion.   Dyer then took over with strong runs and kicks into the corners to keep the Kiwis off balance.  Dyer was able to dot down under the posts for the second try, which Thayer converted. Jesuit also started to make some big hits and tightened up on the defensive side.

Halftime score Jesuit 12 – Rangitoto 8.

Jesuit started the second half with more possession and hard runs from backs and forward allowed the ball to move into the wide channels.  Dyer again spotted some space and a good kick chase allowed winger Brian Betts to dive on the bouncing ball to score.  Carlos Ramirez converted.  Dyer then had a storming run and went through seven defenders to set up a try for replacement flanker Garrett Kay to finish off.  The conversion was missed, but the score put Jesuit up 24-8 with less than twenty minutes left.  Rangitoto picked up the pace to score two well-worked tries, but Jesuit was able to win a penalty at the death and clear the ball.  Rangitoto now heads to Southern California to take on the Single School #9 ranked Mira Costa Mustangs.

Final score Jesuit 24 – Rangitoto College 18

“This was the game we needed to end our season with several players putting their hand up for selection” said Head Coach John Shorey.  “We have several players coming back from injury and our focus over the next three weeks will be getting healthy and fine tuning our game plan as we go into Nationals.”

Jesuit ends the season with just two losses to the #1 ranked Club School – Danville.  Those losses were by a combined 12 points.  They were able to beat several other highly ranked sides this season in their Nor Cal Premier League competition, in friendlies and in tournament games.  These wins included two wins over #3 Club School Granite Bay (in league play and playoffs), Solo Falcons and #7 Santa Monica and single schools Kahuku (Hawaii) ranked #7 and Archbishop Riordan ranked in the top 50.