GRR: Southern California
The Empire Rugby U18s finished their season with a convincing 47-5 win over ORCA to take the Southern California Green Championship Saturday.
Empire had wanted to go into the Gold playoffs as the top team from the Green, but that bid was denied. They settled for getting a Green title, and did so.
Empire plans to move up to the Gold Division in 2016.
The Empire Rugby Club made the final of the Green division in Southern California Boys HS Rugby with a 56-20 defeat of Hawaiian Gardens.
Empire beat Rising Eagles, Desert Valley, and Hawaiian Gardens in league play to get to the playoffs, where they hammered Poway, a team that beat them in a non-league game earlier in the year.
Los Angeles and Back Bay will play for the Southern California HS club title next week after both teams won nailbiting semifinals on Saturday.
Back Bay (ranked the #7 multi-school team by Goff Rugby Report) defeated #4 single-school team Fallbrook in overtime.
Southern California’s second HS season comes to a close over the next three weeks, with two divisions of quarterfinals starting this week.
The SoCal U18 club season has been split into Gold and Green conferences, with the Tri-Counties conference straddling the two.
Fallbrook clinched the South Gold conference in Southern California with a 43-20 defeat of the San Diego Young Aztecs Saturday.
Fallbrook was just coming off an instructive loss of 71-7 to Westlake HS of New Zealand, a game that had its positive moments but was a humbling experience to the Southern California team.