GRR: North Carolina
Cape Fear defeated Clayton 33-32 in the North Carolina to make the state final.
Clayton came out strong and played some exciting rugby. Fear was playing their first game without two of their leading scorers in center Dev Gardner and wing Zay Arrington as they had football commitments, but Eli Rivera, Cohen Cortes, and Mason WIseman all filled in for them and all played well.
The Clayton girls team worked their way through a tough Carolina Ruggerfest over the weekend, and did it with no margin for error.
Only able to travel with 15 players (including four freshmen), and then picking up one more as a sub, they played four games through the tournament, going 4-0.
The Carolinas School final will see Charlotte Catholic take on South Meck in a rematch of a 25-24 meeting between the two earlier in the season.
The Winter high school season in the Carolinas is designed to be a school-team league, but as some teams are still working toward there, there are two brackets for teams that still draw players from multiple schools, and Wando will take on Hough in one of those finals.
The closest game all season for both the Charlotte Cardinals and Wando Wahines came on December 4, when the two girls HS teams in the Carolinas league faced off.
So it is only fitting that these two will meet again in the final this weekend in Matthews, NC.