SFGG and Granite Bay battled to a 25-25 tie on Saturday in a game that served a couple of purposes.

For SFGG, the result spelled out some reason for confidence as the league season progresses. Head Coach Tony Wells said he’s getting the culture right and the players are starting to see how much hard work goes into succeeding in Northern California.

For Granite Bay, it was, perhaps, a wakeup call that strong season or not in 2015-16, they will have to put in the effort to get back to national contention. At the same time, the Grizzlies also showed plenty of heart as they came back in the second half.

“The match did not go as planned,” said Granite Bay Head Coach Jason Divine. “We made a lot of mistakes and gave away a lot of possession. Hats off to SFGG, they came ready to play. They started strong and played with composure. They are well coached and have good athletes.”

For SFGG, Wells said “it was a good game for us, but we also felt like we could do better. We lost a few lineouts and six tightheads.”

(That would be, they lost six scrums when they had the put-in.)

“We have got a chance to have a good season,” added Wells. “And think what we could have done with more possession.”

SFGG and Granite Bay are both pretty young. SFGG started 11 juniors, while Granite Bay also has a high number of underclassmen. They will be good for a while.

Among the SFGG players who did well in that game were lock Bernie Carlin, hooker Sam Cormier, flyhalf Ronan Orford (pictured), and flanker Ronnie McElligott.

Next up for Granite Bay are the Solo Falcons. SFGG visits Lamorinda.