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Mountain Ridge Wins Utah Boys Fall 7s

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Mountain Ridge Wins Utah Boys Fall 7s

The Mountain Ridge guys probably look cold. Note the snow on the cap in the front of the picture.

Mountain Ridge won the Utah Youth Rugby Boys Fall Series, getting by Herriman to take the title.

"We had a really great fall season, but everything came together right at the end for our Varsity Boys," said Head Coach Spencer Criddle. "I was really impressed with how well they played together, there were certainly standout players but their success was founded on great teamwork. We only gave up two tries in the whole final tournament while score at least five in every match."

Isaac Criddle and Misi Heimuli were especially good for Mountain Ridge.

The Mountain Ridge grew out of the Herriman program and in fact their coaches used to coach at Herriman. So it's no surprise that Herriman program director Jeff Wilson was complimentary.

"They had a very talented 7s group—big, physical, and aggressive—and they got better week to week," said Wilson. "Their coaches, Spencer Criddle and Chandler Evans, are both former coaches of ours, with Chandler also being an alum as a player, so I was really happy to see them take it."

This isn't the be-all and end-all for Mountain Ridge.

"We’re hoping we can continue to build on the fall success for spring," said Criddle. "We’re very lucky to have great competition at a local level where we can play teams like Herriman, Olympus, East, and United week-in and week-out. I believe putting our team in that level of competition really raises the bar for us."

For Herriman, the defending single-school national champions in 15s, this was about reloading for the spring.

Lacking a couple of experienced players they still performed well, with the challenge of competitive games being the thing.

"In 2017 or 2018 I think it was, we had most of our starters playing 7s and the only remotely close game we had was when we split the team in two and played each other in the finals—I don't think we got any better that fall," said Wilson. "This fall was a tremendous opportunity for development for players and they made huge strides. So, all in all, we got exactly what we wanted out of this fall."