Playoff Time in Pacific Northwest
Playoff Time in Pacific Northwest
It's coming on playoff time in the Pacific Northwest boys HS leagues.
Oregon
Oregon kicks off their semifinals this week with the favored Eastside Tsunami, sitting at 7-0, facing Summit.
This matchup, #1 vs #4, is a bit misleading in that Summit’s opener vs Linn Benton was canceled and never played.
As a result, Summit ended up 4-2, while Beaverton (at #2) and Bend Blues (at #3) are 5-2. Summit, in fact, beat Beaverton. Had they played and beaten Linn Benton we’d likely have seen a three-way tie at 5-2 with 21 standings points. How the tiebreakers work is a question but there’s a possibility we’d have seen a change in the semifinal matchups.
Summit played Eastside on April 19 with the Tsunami winning 39-12.
But maybe the team to keep an eye on is Bend, which beat Summit (who beat Beaverton) but two weeks ago lost 26-24 to Beaverton. Those two meet this weekend.
For Bend Head Coach Jason Gillam, the climb back from COVID interruptions has been a bit of a grind. This is their third year coming back and it’s falling into place.
“We really had a big buy-in with all the boys into the concept of team,” Gillam told GRR.
Led by an excellent back row of senior Garren White and sophomores Miles Schuller and Jettson Gillam, the Blues are possibly the best defensive team in the league.
Cody Calvert leads a very goo strong row, while Kingston Kaniho, Braven Peiler, and Jackson Urbach are dangerous among the backs.
“I personally believe these are players whose names you will hear in the future,” said Gillam.
Of course, it would help if they beat Beaverton.
Eastern Washington
Moscow and Ellensburg seem to be the top teams in Eastern Washington. Both won comfortably last week, Ellensburg beat Liberty Warriors 56-20 while Moscow downed Yakima 49-12.
These two teams face off this weekend.
Washington
The Eastside Lions retain their lead in Rugby Washington’s league on the western side of the state.
The lions won well over Chuckanut Wing Joe Bainivalu scored five tries and added two conversions for good measure. They are playing fast, physical, and imaginative rugby.
Lurking behind Eastside are the Liberty Patriots at 5-1-1. Their one tie is with the Rainier Highlanders, who are 3rd, while Camas sits 4th at 5-2.
All of those teams won last week. The Highlanders, led by two tries from Sirnaomas Failautusi, defeated the Seattle Panthers; Liberty defeated Schoolhouse 45-20, and Camas got four tries from Rylan Reinebach in a win over Budd Bay.
Playoffs start this week at Starfire Stadium, with Eastside vs Camas and Liberty vs Rainier.
Idaho
It's pretty simple in Idaho. Eagle and Owyhee won their semifinals in convincing fashion last week and will meet up this week for the championship. Eagle defeated Owyhee 57-29 in their previous meeting on March 13. With an average points-per-game of over 60; led by No. 8 Jaxson Lebeau and Blake Rodenbaugh in the forwards and with Wyatt Hair running things well at scrumhalf, Eagle's attack has not been stopped yet.
