The regular season in the SCIRF is done with the St. Augustine Saints taking 1st, Cathedral Catholic 2nd, Fallbrook 3rd, and Mira Costa 4th.

The Saints defeated Cathedral 33-14 in a game where they were eager to avenge their 33-10 loss to Cathedral on January 28.

The game saw the Saints get off to an early lead when Donovan Yousif scored in the first three minutes. Play went back and forth, with both sides spreading the field to attack the fringe, and then at the 15 minute mark the Saints scored again as Yousif took a tip ball off Andres Drab and worked hard to get to the try zone. The Saints struck again before halftime; Chuckie Guay took a ball in the wide channel, shook off a tackler, and dove across the line. The Saints missed the conversion, but the score was now 19-0. Cathedral came back with a try and conversion before halftime to make it 19-7.

The second half saw both squads working to control the game through the forwards in the middle of the field. The Saints struck first when Brando Peck made a line break. He was caught by the Cathedral defense, but in the next phase the Saints got the ball to Sammy Johns, who attacked the wide channel and skipped Anthony Alvarez on an unders line to hit Grant Gauthier on the hop. Gauthier was in and it was 26-7. Cathedral bounced back and charged in with a try to make it 26-14.

St. Augustine's Chuckie Guay responded with the Saints final try when he charged up the middle. Lucca Rohrer converted, making it four out of five kicks for him. He was also key with the key in getting his team out of trouble.

With the victory, the Saints took the league title, Titan Shield and the Charity Cup. the Saints will now host CC next week in the SCIFR Championship game at SAHS. The tiebreaker for the season promises to be a good one as both teams will look get the SCIRF Championship and the championship trophy provided by Long Beach State.  

Fallbrook Reaches Milestone

It was also a big day for Fallbrook as they edged Mira Costa 17-16 to finish 3-3. It was the first time Fallbrook had hit .500 in league play since 2017. Fallbrook came back from 13-0 down at halftime to win the game. Head Coach Sierra Arteaga has used his connections as part of the school's football coaching staff to open the players' eyes to rugby and he had a very young team. 

With support within the school and a dedicated core of players Fallbrook, a public high school, has impressed, with an early-season win over Cathedral a key step forward for them. Thomas McSheehy, who played his club rugby with national champs Thunder last year, has been a central figure for Fallbrook at flyhalf, keeping the players on task.

"He shows them where the standard can be," said Arteaga. "We're learning and growing, and getting to .500 was big for us."