A tough first half was too much to recover from for the Live Oak
High rugby club team in a 38-12 loss to perennial power Cougar RFC
in the NorCal Tier 2 semifinals in Fair Oaks last Saturday. Playing
into a stiff wind, the Acorn ruggers found themselves down 26-0 at
halftime. Field position and ball possession by Cougar RFC of the
Sacramento Valley League, and untimely penalties by Live Oak
contributed to the lopsided first half.
A tough first half was too much to recover from for the Live Oak High rugby club team in a 38-12 loss to perennial power Cougar RFC in the NorCal Tier 2 semifinals in Fair Oaks last Saturday.
Playing into a stiff wind, the Acorn ruggers found themselves down 26-0 at halftime.
Field position and ball possession by Cougar RFC of the Sacramento Valley League, and untimely penalties by Live Oak contributed to the lopsided first half.
Live Oak did find a second-half spark on two spectacular tries by junior fullback-wing Dustin Muhn and senior scrumhalf Eduardo Arias, and some hard running by junior center Tommy Sparling. Erik Cifuentes rounded out Live Oak’s scoring with a 2-point conversion.
But the Acorns’ efforts couldn’t halt Cougar’s cruise into today’s Tier 2 final against Diablo RFC of the Bay League.
Live Oak’s season record stands at 5-5-1 and has been selected to compete in the Pacific Coast Rugby Football Union High School tournament at Stanford University’s Steuber Rugby Stadium this weekend.
The invitational field includes: Antioch, Cougar, East Palo Alto, Fullerton Youth, Luther Burbank, Peninsula Green, Hayward, Silicon Valley, Spanish Fork, and teams from Oregon and Washington.
