SCIRF

The SCIRF varsity league in Southern California, not affiliated with SoCal Youth Rugby, saw Cathedral Catholic and St. Augustine move to 6-0 and 5-0, respectively, while Fallbrook won again to go to 5-1.

Fallbrook beat La Costa Canyon 40-0. It was a solid defensive effort for Fallbrook after last week’s loss to Cathedral. Manny Reyes led the effort on defense while center Alan Leon caused LCC all kinds of trouble with ball in hand and scored two tries.

“We have to be better looking for space on the attack and defending space when on the defensive side,” said Head Coach Sierra Arteaga.

St. John Bosco won a Thursday night game over Warren but couldn’t make it a weekend sweep as they lost to Cathedral 26-12. 

This was the first time that Cathedral and St. John Bosco had played since 2019.

Cathedral and Bosco may not have met since 2019; the names of the players may have changed but the physicality of past CC-Bosco games was alive and well Saturday morning in Bellflower. Both teams went at it for 70 minutes with each team trying to play their own style of rugby, Bosco would utilize their size throughout the game while Cathedral used their speed and kicking to their advantage.

Tries from center Rocco Balistreri and Spencer Huntley, with Huntley converting both, staked Cathedral to a first-half lead of 14-0. CC wing Grant Gancarz opened the second half scoring with an unconverted try but Bosco did very well to claw back to within a score at 19-12 with less than five minutes to play.

Bosco had mounted their comeback by pinning Cathedral in their 22, but CC turned the tables after the restart and finally Jon Solomon broke through to ice it 26-12.

“Again another great team effort across the board especially in light of four starters out due to injury,” said Cathedral Catholic Coach Glenn Irvine. Special accolades to no. 8 Luke Westfall for his numerous line breaking runs and big tackles throughout the game.”

St. Augustine and Cathedral play each other this coming Friday in San Diego. 

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