GRR: Southern California
There's a lot going on in Lucca Deocariza's life and rugby is just part of it.
Welcome to our first Player of the Month award. We asked for nominations for a Player of the Month from our readers, making it plain that we were looking for high school student-athletes, boys or girls, who were accomplished on and off the field.
Belmont Shore defeated the SOC Raptors 24-17 Saturday to advance to the Southern California HS Club final.
As has been the case this season the games between the top four, this contest was close.
(Games between Belmont Shore, Raptors, San Diego Mustangs, and Thunder were, on average, 30-20, with four of the six games within a try.)
Coming out of Southern California action undefeated and with an almost perfect defensive scoresheet, Fallbrook Girls were favorites to contend in the U18 Girls Elite bracket of the Tropical 7s.
The San Diego Mustangs defeated the SOC Raptors 31-14 in Southern California action.
Led by another massive game from lock Dylan Fortune, the Mustangs improved to 3-1 in Southern California league play, while the Raptors dropped to 2-2. Both sides have lost to Belmont Shore, who have started the season 3-0 and had no league game this week because they were attending the Tropical 7s.
With week three coming to an end for the Southern California Youth Rugby's U18 Girls 10s competition, the battle between the unbeaten 6-0 Fallbrook and 5-0 Belmont Shores was what everyone wanted to see.
The game didn’t disappoint with both teams demonstrating speed, hard hitting, and surgical passing. Fallbrook came off the pitch victorious 37-7.