Warriors win rugby tournament

Six named to all-tournament team

Fallbrook High School's boys rugby team won the March 14-15 Fullerton Youth Rugby International Tournament which was played on the field across from Ladera Vista Junior High School, and six of the 15 all-tournament players were members of the Warriors.

"It was a huge success," said Fallbrook coach Mike Majewski.

The tournament was an under-18 competition. "It was a mixture there of club teams and high school teams," Majewski said. "We may have been the only high school team there."

The March 14 pool play matches consisted of 23-minute games which were not broken into halves. USA Rugby limits the number of minutes a youth team can play in one day, so the contests were approximately one-third the length of high school regulation games comprised of 35-minute halves. "The team that we have, they measure up very well for this type of play," Majewski said. "We play fast-starting, our mistakes our minimized."

Majewski explained that a mistake has three times the impact in such a shortened game. "Our boys are talented enough where we changed our strategy, and it fit the tournament well," he said.

The Warriors opened the tournament with a 10-7 victory over Santa Monica. "Very close match," Majewski said. Santa Monica had defeated Fallbrook in the 2014 playoffs. "It was nice to get back on track with Santa Monica," Majewski said.

The Warriors shut out their other two pool play opponents, defeating South Bay (Carson) by a 15-0 score and Pleasanton (Alameda County) in a 12-0 contest.

Knockout play March 15 utilized two 15-minute halves. The Warriors began the day with a 48-0 victory over Mother Lode from the Sacramento area. "All cylinders were firing," Majewski said. "We were playing strong in all the matches, but the thing I like most about this match was we were able to get our reserves some playing time as well."

Each team had 15 players on the pitch at a time. Fallbrook took 19 players, giving the Warriors only four substitutes. "Luckily our weekend was injury-free," Majewski said. "It worked out."

Both teams in the championship match traveled from San Diego County; the Young Aztecs play their home matches at Dusty Rhodes Park in the Ocean Beach area of San Diego and utilize players from multiple high schools. "The quality of play was outstanding," Majewski said.

Fallbrook scored first, obtaining a five-point try but in the corner where the angle made the two-point conversion kick unlikely. "It was too far out," Majewski said.

A try with a conversion gave the Young Aztecs a 7-5 halftime lead. "It was after playing about five minutes of very tough defense inside the 10-meter line," Majewski said of the Young Aztecs' try.

The try was only the second the Warriors allowed during the weekend. "The one against Santa Monica was a lucky bounce," Majewski said. "Our defense rose to the occasion time and time again against athletes much bigger than us."

In the second half, Fallbrook scored a try to take a 10-7 lead. The Aztecs tied the game on a successful penalty kick, and the 10-10 tie after regulation triggered a 10-minute sudden-death overtime period.

Fallbrook had previously taken second place and third place in the Fullerton tournament. "We've done quite well at Fullerton in past years," Majewski said.

"We wound up on the top end this time," Majewski said.

Landon Raster advanced the ball on a break of approximately 30 meters before passing to Trevor Rainwater. Rainwater passed to Landon Benner, who scored the try for a 15-10 Fallbrook victory and the championship.

"It was just another great experience for these boys," Majewski said. "I'm very proud of their efforts."

The all-tournament team selected the players deemed to have been the best at each position. Benner was the all-tournament winger; Rainwater was chosen at fullback; and the all-tournament players also included hooker Enrique Barreto, prop Matt May, flanker Austin Perona, and 8 Steven Branham.

"It was just a great team effort," Majewski said.