ABBOTSFORD — Check back on this blog throughout the day as we bring you the results from all five B.C. senior boys championship finals.
Triple A Tier 1
They had won the Fraser Valley championships as eighth and as 10th graders, but since there was no category for provincial titles back then, the seniors with Abbotsford’s Yale Lions had just one finish in mind when it came time to playing the final high school game of their careers.
“Every year we have put in the time, it’s all been for this game,” Lions’ senior Josh Long said after Yale not only topped North Vancouver’s Carson Graham Eagles to win the B.C. triple-A tier 1 title, but blanked them to the tune of 17-0.
“Our talk all week was that we wanted to make sure we played really good defence,” said Yale head coach Doug Primrose whose team allowed just seven points over its three tournament games. “We stressed taking away space and although we were undersized, our guys really showed heart.”
Matt Cercel, Evan Johnston and Chris Combs all scored tries for the winners with Long adding a convert.
“We were excellent today and you couldn’t have asked for a better finish,” said Long.
Double-A Tier 1
Victoria’s St. Michaels University School Blue Jags repeated as provincial champions, blanking West Vancouver’s Collingwood’s Cavaliers over the second half en route to a 17-3 win.
“We like to play with the ball in hand, but today, with the awkward conditions, that was not always possible,” said SMUS head coach Ian Hyde-Lay of a game played in constant, driving rain. “You don’t expect this kind of wet weather at the end of May. But the seniors in the group, guys like Jonas Robinson, Josh Graffi, Josh Kahn and the rest, their leadership was superior.”
Aidan Cole in the first half, then Lukas de Vries in the second, scored tries in the win. Quinn Ngawati kicked two converts and then added a late penalty to make the 14-point win complete.
“We have a good culture at the school, but these championships are hard to win,” said Hyde-Lay. “We a pretty easy time, unexpectedly, a month ago against Collingwood. They were so much more committed today. They made things very difficult for us.”
DOUBLE A TIER 1
Surrey’s Elgin Park Orcas won their first B.C. senior boys rugby title, playing stifling defence to beat North Vancouver’s Argyle Pipers 10-3 in the championship final.
The Pipers had opened the scoring with an early penalty kick but the Orcas rallied back with a pair of unconverted tries.
Carter MacDonald and Jessen Gibbs each scored before the half and Elgin Park was able to maintain their distance over a scoreless final 30 minutes.
DOUBLE A TIER 2
It was raining so hard that it was hard to tell, but Michael Joyce admitted those were indeed tears running down his face.
“This shows that rugby exists outside of the Fraser Valley,” said the head coach of Nelson’s L.V. Rogers Bombers said after his team survived a last-second push by the host Robert Batman Timberwolves to pull out a 13-12 win Saturday in the B.C. senior boys double-A Tier 2 championship final played at Abbotsford’s Rotary Stadium.
The victory gave the Bombers a perfect 15-0 record on the season.
Trailing 13-7 in the dying stages of play, the Timberwolves were aiming for their third come-from-behind victory in as many days, and when Matt Calderone scored a try on the last tick of the referee’s clock, Bateman had the opportunity to steal a most dramatic provincial title.
However the convert fell shy and the Bombers were celebrating their school’s first senior varsity provincial title since its boys volleyball team won a blue banner back in 1994.
“I saw the looks in the eyes of the guys on the other side and we know how they feel,” said Joyce. “It was a game that just as easily could have gne the other way.”
Martin Mendez had scored the first try of the game for L.V. Rogers, and Dylan Dixon added a penalty to put the Kootenays’ squad up 8-0. But on the final play of the first half, Bateman added a converted try of its own to bring the score to 8-7 at halfitme.
L.V. Rogers came into the tournament seeded No. 1 and Bateman No. 2.
