On a weekend of drama in HS state championships, Southern California chimed in with one of their own.

In a dramatic, back-and-forth contest, Back Bay took the Southern California Boys HS club title 25-24 over the Coastal Dragons.

“It was a great game to watch I am sure, but not so great for the coaching staffs,” said Back Bay Coach Jeff Bonnett. 

Coastal Dragons did a good job of negating some of the strengths of Back Bay - especially their skilled flyhalf Anton Grigoriou - while Back Bay keyed nicely on the Dragons midfield of Sean Lumkong and Justin Petersen. So that meant everyone else had to step up, and they did. No. 8 Sosefo Mailangi had a big game for Back Bay, while Coastal scrumhalf Patrick French was excellent for the Dragons.

“Both teams played very well,” said Coastal Coach Ed Petersen. “We were up by six with four minutes to go. We had the game in hand but couldn’t keep it. “Their backline is very good. If you don’t control the ball they are going to take it to you.” 

The Dragons went into the game knowing they would be put under pressure from Grigoriou’s kicking. So they devised a plan.

“We have a pretty good kicking game, too, so we kicked to their back three and chased. Our chase was good and our tackling was good and we were able to put them under pressure.”

that worked well, and Coastal took the lead as a result of that tactic.

“We started doing some silly things,” added Back Bay Coach Jeff Bonnett. “We tried to pop the ball in a way we don’t normally do. We were kind of sketchy, really, in the first half, but in the second half both teams played pretty well.”

Bonnett said the key was that his team stuck with the pattern, and didn’t get flustered. Slowly they started to pull back.

With time almost up and Coastal Dragons leading 24-18, Back Bay drove over the Dragons’ line, but were held up in-goal. From the ensuing scrum, Back Bay attacked, but Bonnett said he wanted his Sharks to score near the posts, because five points was not going to do it - they needed seven.

But the Sharks kept the phases working, and then got a scrum in front of the posts. From there, Mailangi picked the ball up and powered over for a try. Grigoriou put the extras over, and a minute later, Back Bay were the champions.

“Coastal Dragons are young and they will be back,” said Bonnett. “I was really impressed with them, but for us the key was not panicking when we got into some distress.”

For the Dragons, this was the culmination of an impressive season, but Petersen said he wants more.

In order to get better we need to play other teams,” said Petersen. “We’ve got a great venue just off I-5 to host and we’ll travel. We’ve got a young team, so we expect to be back, but we know also we need to challenge ourselves.”