San Francisco Golden Gate won a meeting of highly-ranked Northern California teams as the #13 SFGG outfit beat #11 Peninsula Green in NorCal Top 5 competition Saturday.

Photos Austin Brewin.

It was a close game for most of the contest, with Peninsula Green pulling off some crucial plays, while SFGG was a little bit more methodical. Pen Green Tala Talapusi scored a couple of important tries, including one that changed an SFGG attacking position into a seven-pointer for Pen Green.

Meanwhile, SFGG got some smart play from Ronan Orford at flyhalf, and center Lasa Tofi scored two tries in the first half. New to rugby this year, flanker AJ Alston was, said SFGG Coach Tony Wells, “a tackling machine.”

The score was 19-17 until late in the game, when SFGG put it out of reach at 26-17.

“Pen Green has some very good players, but we kind of wore them down I think,” said Wells. “We finish strong in games. The ruck area we controlled a bit better - we were there in numbers and poached a couple of balls. Our kicking game was a bit better and we’re fit - we work hard on our fitness. I think that was the difference.”

Pen Green Head Coach Bob Benson said, simple, “it was a great game,” and certainly these two teams are very close.