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Warriors win battle of undefeated girls rugby teams

Prior to their May 8 game against each other, Fallbrook and Los Al were the only two undefeated teams in the Southern California Youth Rugby high school girls league. Fallbrook defeated Los Al that day and also defeated the Empire team out of Riverside in a doubleheader played in Riverside.

The two wins gave Fallbrook a record of 5-0 for the season. The Warriors began league play April 24. "The club had a year off from practice and of course a transition from the legacy coach of the decade to Coach Duncan's first year as the head coach of the club," said Fallbrook operations manager Erik Benitez.

Craig Pinnell and his wife founded Fallbrook's high school girls rugby program in 2007. The team had some 2020 matches before the coronavirus outbreak cancelled the rest of the competition. Pinnell retired last year, and John Duncan took over as the head coach.

The two April 24 games were in Encinitas against the San Diego Mustangs. Both Fallbrook and the Mustangs have two teams with the red team being the premier squad. Fallbrook's red team had a 70-0 victory over the Mustangs' red team and a 41-0 triumph against the Mustangs' gold team. Fallbrook's white team played only the Mustangs' gold team and won by a 28-26 margin.

Belmont Shore, which is based in Long Beach, traveled to Fallbrook for the May 1 competition. Fallbrook's red team defeated the "A" Landsharks team by a 47-0 margin while the Warriors' white team won a 24-0 match against Belmont Shore's "B" team.

The high school league is using a seven-a-side format. The sevens version of rugby involves seven-minute halves as well as seven players on the field for each team. Fallbrook had 14 girls May 8, so seven of them played on the red team and seven played on the white team and the Warriors had no substitutes for their doubleheaders. "We played iron girl," Benitez said.

The match between the two undefeated teams ended as a 43-0 Fallbrook victory over Los Al. "That was great," Benitez said. "We played well."

Two tries apiece were scored by junior Tiahna Padilla and sophomore A.J. Haughey. Three juniors – Jordan Duncan, Julia Tippin, and Brianna Beath – had one try each. Padilla made two conversion kicks while Tippin and sophomore Liberty Benitez each kicked one conversion.

Fallbrook then won a 34-0 match against Empire. Haughey had three tries while Duncan, Tippin, and Beath each scored one try. Both successful conversion kicks were by Benitez.

The Warriors' white team lost its game against Empire by a 19-12 score. Because Los Al only had one team, the Fallbrook white team played the same Orange County team which faced the Warriors' varsity, and Los Al defeated the Fallbrook white squad in a 24-5 match.

A May 22 match against the Tri-City Thunder club of Carlsbad will close out the Warriors' regular-season schedule.

Author Bio

Joe Naiman, Writer

Joe Naiman has been writing for the Village News since 2001

 

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