West Coast 7s Shines in Round 2
West Coast 7s Shines in Round 2
It was a very successful 2nd leg of the West Coast 7s Saturday in Palo Alto, and a good reminder also of how strong a rugby venue Stanford University is.
Cal won the men's collegiate bracket, and really looked quite good in doing it. More on that in a bit.
The women's collegiate bracket was a round-robin and going into the final round Stanford was in a very strong position. Wins over Cal Maritime, Sac State, and Cal (the last one just 15-12) put them at 3-0. Cal Poly lost 17-14 to Cal in their opening match before beating Sacramento State, and Cal Maritime. Cal also beat Cal Maritime.
So that all set up the final round of matches. Cal beat Sac State, while Stanford was surprised but a hard-charging Cal Poly team 19-17.
Stanford has been on campus for just two weeks, and star wing Journey WashingtonHigh said they were a little unfit; certainly they flagged a bit in the final match. Cal Poly, meanwhile, had been working on playing more direct and more aggressively, and they did to win that last game. What all of that meant was the Mustangs, the Bears, and Stanford were all 3-1. The winner came down to points difference, and it was Stanford, by two points.
In the girls HS bracket the Retrievers out of San Jose were skillful and worked well together, and the thing was, so did the San Mateo Wolverines.
The two teams clashed in the final and this was a back-and-forth match in which either side could have won.
In the end, the Wolverines scored late to win it. In the 3rd-4th match Rio Americano beat Bishop O'Dowd, and in the 5th-6th game Cardonelet scored at the death to beat the Harlequins.
The boys HS bracket was a round-robin tournament and a marker was set down early on when the Carmichael Hawks torched a very good Cathedral Catholic side to win 26-12. And when favorites San Mateo just barely edged St. Ignatius SF 12-5, you wondered if it would be the Hawks' day. The Wolverines edged Mother Lode 15-12 and then won another close game 22-17 over Cathedral.
Meanwhile, Carmichael pulled away from Mother Lode 36-12 and then won comfortably over St. Ignatius 33-7.
All of that set up the final match between the Hawks and the Wolverines, two teams that always play each other close. And this game was close, too, as both sides matched each other play-for-play. The key event was probably when San Mateo was free and clear down the sideline, and Rupeni Rukuvau raced in out of nowhere to save a try with a tackle in the corner.
Win for Carmichael, and a trophy.
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Photos Alex Goff
And then Cal. In fact the Bears ran out two sides and both sides won all of their games.
Cal’s top side put up a dominant performance, breezing past Stanford (66-0), Oregon (43-0) and San Diego (47-7) in the pool play round to earn a spot in the championship match.
The Bears’ secondary side showed major improvement from its last outing, going unbeaten through the pool play round with four wins. Last time out, the developmental squad went 1-2 at the WC7s in Los Angeles on Sept. 27. This weekend, the young Cal squad beat Oregon (24-10), UCLA (35-10), Grand Canyon (38-5) and San Diego (31-5).
Because no one wanted Cal-vs-Cal in the final, the Cal top side plays Grand Canyon in the final. GCU had shown some impressive flashes, but they were not able to hang with Cal this time, losing 55-0.
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Oliver Teague was named MVP of the tournament, as he led the team in tries. But really that wasn't why. Teague exerted Cal's dominance by controlling the restarts. It was clear that the Bears had been working very hard on perfecting their restarts, and with Rand Santos and Solomon Williams putting the kickoffs on a dime, Teague just repeatedly sold out to win the ball in the air. When he wasn't going it, someone else was, but really it was Teague who would win the ball in the air, and often he might charge on with it to score.
If he didn't do that, the Bears spun it wide, where the liked of Oliver Newall or Max Threlkeld or Williams who save in with it.
The tournament overall was well received by the teams, with two well-cared-for grass fields and a stadium and space for the teams to rest and recover and warm up, the West Coast 7s positioned itself well for the final run-out in Oceanside, Calif. in two weeks.
