De La Salle Back on Front Foot
De La Salle Back on Front Foot
De La Salle opened their season in Northern California with a victory over Motherlode.
Played in the rain at Saint Mary's College, the game was rife with early-season mistakes, but also played with plenty of effort.
De La Salle dropped a lot of balls and weren't too happy about it, either. Still, DLS kept at it and worked hard, taking chances. Overall it worked out even as Motherlode opted to go to the boot to pin De La Salle back in their territory.
De La Salle kept working on trying to get 50-22s, but the ball tended to roll a direction they didn't want.
De La Salle went into halftime up 17-0 but left a couple more tries unclaimed due to knock-ons. Motherlode responded with a try early in the second half. But a try from DLS put it away 22-5.
No. 8 Tommy Rainsford and center Lucas Meranda each scored two tries while wing Josh Gnovel's try at the end was called back.
Motherlode never backed down despite some injuries. Their tactical choices were good and DLS mistakes have to be chalked up, in part, to Motherlode's defense.
DLS Head Coach Derek Holmberg said the conditions made some of their kick defense and lineouts not work quite as well. He praised Motherlode but also said the pieces are still coming together for De La Salle.
"Takeaways for us were that we looked physical, athletic, and capable on both sides of the ball," said Holmberg. "Defense, scrums and open field attack looked really solid. Lineouts and kick defense need some work. This is a fast and fun team with really good chemistry; time will tell how successful they will be but I like where we are after Week 1."
Next up in NorCal is the NorCal single-school tournament at Jesuit, Sacramento with St. Francis and JSerra.