Hey PITS fans!  The following is the NCRFU referees’ report:

NEW TEAM ON THE BLOCK? Report by John Coppinger:
PITS (Piedmont U-19) has been centered in the community of Piedmont for decades now drawing players from Piedmont High School, Bishop O’Dowd, and various other high schools in the Oakland area. Ray Lehner, who teaches at O’Dowd, is pushing to start an O’Dowd program next year. In order to give the O’Dowd effort a boost, Mike Sagehorn and the De LaSalle team agreed to play an extra fixture at O’Dowd this past Saturday against Piedmont. I handled the Frosh/Soph match and Preston Gordon refereed the varsity match.

Frosh/Soph: PIEDMONT 17 – De La Salle 19 Ref: CoppingerAR: Ed BarfelsAt the kickoff of the Frosh/Soph match, the stands were full of folks and the bar-b-cue was smoking. De La Salle prevailed over Piedmont 19-17. It was a fun match played in good spirits and a number of the Piedmont players were former Little Leaguers who played with or against my son over the years. My thanks to Ed Barfels for acting as AR. Thanks also to the unknown TJ from Piedmont (a Frosh/Soph reserve) who politely listened and smiled as he was severely admonished by a De LaSalle supporter (an adult former player who should know better) when he failed to call (and overrule me on) what the supporter judged to be a forward pass by Piedmont (and it wasn’t). Beyond the one knucklehead, it was a beautiful day for rugby. I had to miss Preston’s match, but I caught up w/ John Collum, Mike Sagehorn, John Hyland, Jerry Figone, and Preston at Crogan’s, where Trailer was a generous host. Also in attendance at the pitch were Pelicans Joe Saccomanno and Rob Hendrickson.

Varsity:  PIEDMONT 34 – De La Salle 10 Referee: Preston GordonHalftime 12-7AR: Ed Barfels On a sunny afternoon at Bishop O’Dowd high school in Oakland, PITS played their last match of the season. I arrived about halfway through the frosh/soph game which had John Coppinger in charge, and took a few pictures of the crowd that had gathered for the occasion. I’d estimate there were a couple hundred people in attendance, both PITS and De La Salle fans. Lots of parents, teammates, fellow students, girlfriends, etc. It’s great to see that HS rugby is this well supported and certainly bodes well for the future!

After the pre-match chat, we kicked off at about 1520. Both teams were pretty well matched up size-wise, but it was clear shortly after the opening whistle that PITS was the better-drilled side. Their forwards controlled the scrums, and although a few had to be reset during the game, it was a fairly one-sided affair. In the backs, both teams threw the ball around quite a bit and each side had several really good runs. There was a bit of indiscriminate kicking, and more than the usual number of knock-ons for a warm, dry day, which seemed to favor PITS’ control of the scrums too. The game was somewhat constrained by the (lack of) width of the football field, and the lack of proper rugby lines caused a bit of confusion on occasion, but we got on with it. At halftime it was 12-7 if I recall correctly, and a great contest. There was only one occasion where I had to deal with a dangerous tackle with something other than my voice or whistle - thanks for that, guys. PITS ran away with the game in the last 20 minutes or so, even though many of their seniors were taken off to give next year’s seniors a run. We finished at 34-10, a well-earned victory to PITS that perhaps flatters them a bit. De La Salle has several players of their own who looked dangerous all game too.

The sideline support was great throughout the day, and if anything, it grew. Someone was kind enough to operate the scoreboard and clock, which is a huge help to the fans - we need more of this in American rugby. PITS organized a great BBQ and feed after the game too. All in all it was an excellent way to spend a few hours on a Saturday afternoon. Thanks to Ed who stuck around to AR, and also to the gentleman whose name I didn’t catch who had the flag on the other touchline.

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