Fallbrook Girls Rugby concludes season with split in Philadelphia

The Fallbrook Girls Rugby season concluded with the June 1-3 USA Sevens Girls High School Rugby Challenge tournament in Philadelphia.

The Warriors finished fourth in the tournament after winning three matches and losing three games.

The 12 high school girls teams were divided into three pools of four squads each. Sevens rugby has seven players for each team on the field at one time and it also utilizes seven-minute halves, or 14-minute games. Fallbrook's three pool games were all played June 1.

Fallbrook began the tournament with a match against North Bay, which is based in Maryland. North Bay held a 7-0 halftime lead and won the game by a 14-12 score. Shelby Tippin and Nathalie Celis scored Fallbrook's tries with Abby Savin kicking a conversion.

"We shouldn't have lost that game," said Fallbrook co-coach Craig Pinnell.

Because the top eight teams advanced to the quarterfinals, second place in the pool would still extend Fallbrook's participation in the tournament. "It wasn't the end of the world," Pinnell said.

Fallbrook recovered from that loss with a 45-0 victory over the Kiski Valley squad from Pennsylvania. "They had to fix it after that first game," Pinnell said.

Savin scored two tries and kicked five conversions. A try apiece was scored by Celis, Bella Devore, Sam Oksnee, Olivia Sonia, and Sammy Stern.

The Warriors closed out pool play with a 59-0 triumph against the Doylestown 2 team from Pennsylvania (the Dragons fielded two teams in the tournament). The halftime score was 31-0. "Another big score," Pinnell said.

Oksnee had three tries. Celis scored two tries. Sonia crossed the try line once and kicked six conversions. Phoebe Anderson, Devore, and Stern had a try apiece. Savin kicked one conversion.

Fallbrook was ranked as the best second-place team, giving the Warriors the fourth seed for the quarterfinals with the Utah Cannibals seeded first, North Bay given the second seed, and Pennsylvania United seeded third. Fallbrook's quarterfinal against USA South 1 began at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time June 2.

Although USA South 1 limited Fallbrook to a 7-0 halftime lead, the Warriors ended the game on the favorable end of the 33-0 final score. Stern had two tries, Savin scored a try and three conversions, Sonia had one try and one conversion, and Celis scored a try.

"Up to that point we were pretty happy with where we were," Pinnell said.

The semifinal match began at 2:30 p.m. "We had a long wait," Pinnell said.

Fallbrook also had the top-seeded opponent in the semifinals. The Utah Cannibals had a 14-7 advantage when the halftime whistle blew and won the game by a 19-14 score.

"We lost by one try," said Pinnell. "We were in that game all the way through. We played very well. We just made some critical mistakes at the wrong time."

Oksnee and Stern scored Fallbrook's tries. Savin and Sonia kicked conversions.

"Up to that point a very good weekend," Pinnell said.

The loss placed Fallbrook in the third-place game June 3 against Pennsylvania United, which earned third place with a 24-0 victory.

"Still not quite sure what happened," said Pinnell of his team's performance against Pennsylvania United. "They weren't themselves."

The 2018 Fallbrook squad included six seniors. Devore was the only senior among the 11 players who traveled to the USA Sevens Girls High School Rugby Challenge.

"The other 10 hopefully will carry on," Pinnell said. "Hopefully those experiences will teach them something and we can move on."