Submitted by Andrew Smith, Coach -  Hart District Wildcats Rugby Football Club (1/26)

The Pac-10 Rugby Tournament was held at one of the nicest venues in Southern California, right in the middle of the campus at UCLA.

Our first match of the tournament drew us up against our main rivals in SoCal, the Back Bay Sharks from Newport Beach. The Sharks were much bigger than our boys, and the game turned out to be very rough and physical, just as we had expected. Fly half Jake Johnson suffered a dislocated finger on the opening kickoff play and had to be taken for medical attention.  With the game tied at zero, as the first half came to a close, left wing Micheal Dilley scored the first try for the Wildcats.

As usual, Back Bay came out very strong in the second half, but the Wildcats contained every drive they attempted to piece together. Jake Johnson got his hand taped up and was able to return to play in that second half. After driving the Sharks back inside their own in-goal area, flanker Kris Krosskove and lock Chad Chebbi laid out the Back Bay scrum half with a bone crushing (and probably season-ending) tackle and #9 Erik Richardson touched the ball down for the Wildcats’ second try of the game, blanking the Sharks with a very impressive 10 - 0 victory at the end of an incredibly brutal match.

The second match of the day pitted us against a very big and powerful Gators team from South Orange County. And even though the boys didn’t know it, the legendary coach from Cal Berkeley, Jack Clark, came by the pitch to watch the Wildcats play. He got to see one heck of a game.

Number 5 Chad Chebbi drew the first blood of the game, powering in a try on an unstoppable run, but the Gators came back and tied the match at 5. That was all the Gators would be able to bring, however, as the Wildcats scored two more unanswered tries on dominating charges by #10 Jake Johnson and fullback Ricky Luevano.

Even after the Wildcats lost #11 Micheal Dilley and #15 Ricky Luevano to the sin bin with yellow cards, the Wildcats proved just exactly how tough they can play against powerful opposition and held the Gators scoreless while playing two men down. The game ended in a second consecutive Wildcats win at 15 - 5.

Every player played with grit, determination, and skill, and several of our rookies had the chance to get out on the field and prove they earned their spots on the team with very impressive play from #13 Michael Cooper, scrummie Michael Hogan, props Brandon Wood and Randy Sloane, centers Travis Gonsalves and Collin Olsson, flankers Cody Gavin and Julio Orozco, forward Kyle Alvarez, and winger Amadeo Alonso.

We also got to see some outstanding play from our non-starter returning Wildcats: Paul Gonzales, who can play any position on the field, hooker Steve Romero, and winger Jamison Gilmore, who had a pair of spectacular runs with the ball.

Sunday turned out to be rougher than expected, as the LA Cougars of Loyola HS showed up with a few different players than they brought to UCLA on Saturday. After one half of play, the score was tied at zero, underscoring the intensity of this very physical match.

The Wildcats looked a bit flat and hurt after their two matches on Saturday, but showed moments of brilliance in the fielding and running from Ricky Luevano, a nice hold-up of the ball in goal to stop a Cougars drive, and a picture-perfect maul drive from a lineout led by Alex Bercovici and hooker Jorge Hernandez.

When the Cougars regained possession of the ball, they moved downfield with a series of very hard-hitting pick-and-go plays set up by multiple rucks and were ultimately able to inch the ball over the goal line. Final score was 5 - 0. It couldn’t get any closer than that, but it certainly could have ended better.

Looking forward to meeting the Cougars again in just a couple weeks at home during regular season play.