Warrior girls reach finals of USA Rugby's championship tourney

Fallbrook High School's girls rugby club played in USA Rugby's Girls High School Club National Championship tournament May 21-22 at the University of Central Washington in Ellensburg and advanced to the final before losing the championship match to the Amazons club of Sacramento.

The loss ended a streak of five consecutive championships for the Warriors, who lost to Amazons in the 2010 final but won the under-19 National Invitational Tournament each year between 2011 and 2015.

This year, USA Rugby created the Girls High School Club National Championship tournament for high school teams while also sanctioning the under-19 National Invitational Tournament for clubs. Although Fallbrook High School has a handful of players from Mission Vista High School, Valley Center High School and Temecula, most of the Warriors attend Fallbrook High School and Fallbrook played in the single-school tournament.

"I'm a little disappointed because we've been used to coming in first and we trained that way," said Fallbrook co-coach Craig Pinnell.

Fallbrook's 2015 championship was achieved by a finals victory against the Kent club based in Covington, Wash., which is in the same county as Seattle. Kent, which also lost to the Warriors in the 2013 championship match, is approximately an hour and a half away from Ellensburg and hosted this year's tournament.

Past tournaments have consisted of eight teams, but this year the tournament was expanded to 10 teams. The teams were ranked by The Breakdown, which covers women's rugby news, and the May 21 competition began with the seventh and tenth teams playing each other while the eighth and ninth teams faced each other.

"When you have 10 teams it gets complicated," said Pinnell.

Both higher-seeded teams won and advanced to the May 21 quarterfinals. USA rugby limits youth players to 90 minutes each day, so the possibility of one of the play-in teams also having both a quarterfinal match and a semifinal reduced Fallbrook's two May 21 games to 40 minutes apiece, or 20-minute halves.

"The games had to be shortened slightly to accommodate those two first games on day one," said Pinnell.

The Capital High School club from Boise, Idaho, which was the eighth seed, would not advance to the semifinals. Fallbrook was given the top seed and faced the Eagles in the quarterfinals.

"They had a different tactic," Pinnell said. "Each team brings something different to the table."

That offered a different style of opponent play to the Warriors, whose halftime lead was 17-0. "We had a hard time adjusting to that in the first half," Pinnell said.

When the whistle blew to end the second half and the game Fallbrook led 41-0. The Warriors scored seven tries and three conversions against Capital with seven different players accounting for the scoring.

"Everybody was involved," Pinnell said.

Kayla Canett scored two tries and kicked one conversion. Michel Navarro also crossed the goal line with the ball twice. Destiny Arena, Lily Ballis, and Jenny Ibarra scored a try apiece. Naomi Colin and Hannah Savin each kicked one conversion.

Fallbrook's semifinal match was against the United club from Alpine, Utah, which is in the same county as Orem and Provo. "They were a good team," said Pinnell of United. "They were a team that played a very similar style to us, so it was nice to play a team like that."

Fallbrook had never previously faced United, although both faced the Danville (California) club this year. The Warriors split their matches against the Oaks in the March 19-20 Fullerton Youth Rugby International Tournament, taking a 12-10 victory over Danville in pool play and losing 17-12 in the championship match. United was victorious in a friendly against Danville.

Fallbrook and United were tied 5-5 at halftime before Fallbrook pulled out a 17-5 victory. Julia Haigh scored the first-half try against United. Canett and Navarro had the second-half tries, with Savin kicking the conversion.

"A closer game, obviously," said Pinnell.

The Warriors played the entire tournament without Lilly Durbin, who was practicing at the Olympic Training Center, and Miriam Friebe, who had a knee injury. Lily and Sydney Ballis are Mormons and did not participate in the championship final.

"We did not have two of our players on Sunday due to the fact that their religion didn't allow them to play," said Pinnell.

The Warriors had 19 players left for the championship game, which involved 15 players on each side. "A little bit thin on the substitutions," said Pinnell.

The final consisted of 35-minute halves, which is the regulation length of high school rugby matches. The Warriors had to contend not only with the second-ranked Amazons, but also with the weather.

"The wind was howling on Saturday, and Sunday the wind just took over the game," said Pennell, adding that the wind often changed the direction of the ball. "You either played with it or against it. We did not adjust as well as we should have."

Amazon had a 24-0 halftime lead.

"We made too many mistakes," said Pinnell. "We didn't finish too much. We were given a few opportunities which we never took advantage of."

Fallbrook scored all 15 points in the second half, but that was not enough to prevent the Amazons' 24-15 victory.

"They were hungrier, I think," said Pinnell of the Amazons. "They played a good game."

Fallbrook's veteran players had experienced National Invitational Tournament championships. None of the 2016 Amazons players were on the 2010 squad that defeated Fallbrook in the final.

"Back then they were seventh and sixth graders," Pinnell said.

Amazons took a 32-10 victory over Fallbrook in 2010. The Warriors have twice defeated Amazons in a National Invitational Tournament championship match; Fallbrook prevailed by a 60-0 margin in 2011 and won the 27-17 contest which concluded the 2014 tournament.

Navarro scored both of Fallbrook's tries in this year's final. "She was heavily marked," Pinnell said.

Savin kicked one conversion. The other three Fallbrook points were scored when Canett kicked a drop goal.

"You don't see a lot of those in rugby," Pinnell said.

The Warriors thus settled for second place.

"The group felt like they played well and they weren't overly disappointed," said Pinnell. "They seemed to be fine with where they ended up."

The National Invitational Tournament was the final high school competition for eight Fallbrook seniors, including Canett and Navarro.

"We're definitely losing a lot of experience," said Pinnell.