The JV brackets in the Regional Cup tournaments are becoming as hotly-contested as the Varsity brackets, and in the Great Northwest Challenge that was certainly the case.

With the HS All Americans and Eagle Impact Rugby Academy touring sides often looking at the JV all-star teams for their players, JV teams realize they are being watched.

Photos Dan Bandoni.

So it had to be particularly gratifying for the Northern Californian Sac Valley JVs to win at the GNC, especially as they needed to razor-thin results to do it.

On Saturday, Sac Valley, NorCal Bay Area, and Southern California all finished the day 2-0, and only if you looked really hard might you have seen a hint that Sac Valley would emerge the best of the three. That hint would come in the opposition scores, as Sac Valley shut out both Montana and Rugby Oregon.

“The players take a lot of pride in their ability to play defense,” said Coach Bob Ericksen. “And their defense was stellar all weekend.

On Day Two, the three top teams played a round-robin to decide the winner, and Sac Valley opened up the day with a 10-5 defeat of rivals Bay Area at 9am.

“We’ve played them before in a warmup, and they had the edge that time,” said Ericksen. “They had size on us, so we decided to try to make them run. We wanted to hit the Bravo gap and then get around the corner, and force them to chase us. We had probably 90% of the territory, and we defended well, also.”

Bay Area did bounce back, but it was too much work to get out of their own end.

SoCal then defeated Bay Area 17-12 in the next game, setting up the final match between SoCal and Sac Valley. And once again a single try was the difference.

“SoCal had really good runners at No. 8 and in the centers, so we wanted to shut them down,” said Ericksen. The plan, which worked for the most part, was to double-team the No. 8 and quash any attempt to get the ball wide. The defense stepped up, and held the Griffins to a lone try, and they scored two to win 12-7.

Sac Valley was led by Doug Mitchell (Granite Bay), a huge presence at prop, and Kaipono Kayoshi (Granite Bay) an athletic second row who is quick enough to be a back. Defensive flanker Zach Neff (CK McClatchy) and Connor Ericksen (Mother Lode) covered the field and were solid in the tackle, while lock Jared Collado (Mother Lode) was also a force in contact. Flyhalf Inoke Waqavesi (CK McClatchy) operated a snappy backline that included fullback Dan Kiesel (Sierra Foothills).

Of course it was a team effort, but one that also showed the depth of young talent in the Sacramento Valley. And they needed all of it - talent, depth, and teamwork - to get by two tough opponents in SoCal and the Bay Area.

Boys JV Order of Finish:

1. Sac Valley (4-0)

2. Southern California Griffins (3-1)

3. Bay Area (2-2)

4. Rhino White (3-1)

5. Oregon (2-2)

6. Washington Wolverines (1-3)

7. Washington Loggers (2-2)

8. Montana (1-3)

9. Rhino Green (0-4)