League games have been hard to come by for Los Alamitos HS in Southern California, but once they get on the field, watch out.

Los Al is a small but very talented team in Orange County, California. And while the top two teams in that division were playing on Saturday, Los Al was getting their first league game wrapped up against Dana Hills. The official score of that game was 52-12, but Rugby SoCal doesn’t post scores with winning margins greater than 40, and in fact Los Alamitos won handily.

The team has a core of about eight players who have been playing together since they were ten years old. It’s a heavily Polynesian lineup, with some serious athletic talent under coach Tevita Aholelei. Dylan Ramirez and Tristan Anesi were on the Eagle Impact Rugby Academy SoCal select side last year, and are leading their effort this year. In addition Los al has recruited some players new to the game, including Joey Noble, a standout defensive lineman for the Los Alamitos football team, and a Sacramento State commit.

Noble has been a try-scoring machine so far for Los Al. 

But they’ve got some work to do. Last week the team did not play because they had exams, and this week’s game was their first of the league season, with three more games left. They have San Juan scheduled for Wednesday (unconfirmed), and Saturday they play the Tritons. Somewhere in there they have to find a time to play Servite, a team Los Al beat handily in a non-league game in December.

So this week could well show us who is the best team in Orange County. Tritons beat San Juan 15-0 (Tritons Beat San Juan, 1st in OC) to establish their bona fides, but everyone should watch out for Los Al.