Warrior ruggers beat Loyola HS team

The Fallbrook Rugby Club high school boys team faced the Loyola High School’s L.A. Cougars and avenged a 2009 loss with a 24-5 victory January 9 at Fallbrook High School.

“It went really well,” said Fallbrook coach Mike Majewski.

Fallbrook had a 24-0 lead before Loyola scored late in the second half.

“We definitely had the upper hand from the very start of the match,” Majewski said. “We definitely set the pace.”

The score was 17-0 at halftime. Fallbrook scored four five-point trys and made two-point conversions on two of those trys. John Hayden, Trevor Krok, Kyle Volan and Jack Munsinger scored one try apiece while Krok kicked both conversions.

Hayden also got Loyola’s attention while playing defense.

“He was all over the field just making huge tackles,” Majewski said.

Fallbrook’s weakness, according to Majewski, was the penalties the Warriors incurred. Fallbrook had more than ten penalties in the first half and didn’t drastically reduce that pace in the second half.

“Our aggressiveness was probably the biggest reason for the penalties,” Majewski said. “A lot of them were things that we just really need to clean up.”

The penalties thus became an area targeted for improvement.

“For us to compete at the next level, we definitely have got to clean that up,” Majewski said.

Rugby is not a CIF sport, but the Fallbrook Rugby Club has a high school boys team which plays both in a high school league and in under-19 club tournament competition. In club play in 2009, Fallbrook lost a qualifying tournament match to the L.A. Cougars, who were ranked fifth in the nation at the time.

Fallbrook graduated 10 seniors from its 2009 team while Loyola lost approximately the same amount. Majewski believes that the difference between the 2009 loss and the 2010 win was due to ball control, quickness, and physical fitness level.

“It was a very fast-paced, very physical match,” he said. “They were a very physical team. They hit real hard.”

Majewski notes that the score wasn’t reflective of Loyola’s play.

“They fought the whole time really hard,” he said. “It was good to have our boys tested like that.”

Fallbrook’s junior varsity team trailed Loyola 10-0 at halftime but ended that match with a 14-10 victory with Javier Gonzales scoring the winning try with approximately one minute left.

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