The Salmon Arm Secondary senior boys rugby team took home the win against the Mount Boucherie Bears on Thursday, April 21. Mount Boucherie opened the scoring but Salmon Arm regained composure and answered quickly, setting Jimmy Picul up to even the score.
After a close start, Salmon Arm ran away with the game. Logan Christian, Ryder Fortes, Cody Jordan and Picul all scored tries in SAS’ 41 to 12 victory.
The SAS boys’ next league game is against Penticton.
Rugbyfest
The senior boys travelled to Kamloops for two exhibition games as part of Rugbyfest. The first game, against Castlegar, began badly, with SAS giving up five points early on. But the team was able to turn things around. Picul scored off a pass from Nathan Thompson.
Ryder Fortes ran through the Castlegar defence before dishing a pass to Nic Ough, who beat one defender for the try. Liam Westbrook went on to score off a lineout late in the game. The final score was 21-19 for Salmon Arm.
The second game, against Caledonia, also began poorly. Salmon Arm let two outside runs in a row burn them for tries. Salmon Arm regained possession and Gabe Wallace, their number eight, crashed into the end zone off the back of a scrum on the 10 metre line, carrying three opposing players with him. The Salmon Arm forwards worked hard in the scrum all game long to maintain possession. The final score was 24-17 for SAS.
Junior Golds
The Salmon Arm junior boys rugby team took the field against Fulton with barely enough players to field a team on April 20.
Between fatigue from a lack of substitutes and struggles with tackling Fulton’s five Grade 10 players, Salmon Arm was out-matched. Scyler Bailey and Alex Muir put in a strong defensive effort and Gage Buchanan made great offensive gains, but the result was a 34 to 14 defeat. The junior boys have a chance at redemption in a rematch against Fulton scheduled for April 27 at the Jackson field.
Jewels
The girls rugby team travelled to Penticton with only 15 players, but persevered to take home the win.
“We expected a tough match, as the Lakers have always been one of our toughest Okanagan opponents,” said coach Jordan Klaws.
Krystine Hamre scored once early in the game and again in the second half. Rayn Lee also scored two tries, both from broken tackles out wide. To round out the scoring, rookie Lea Labranche scored after a pass from Ava Wutske.
The Jewels’ next home games are May 2 versus Norkam and May 5 againts Penticton. The girls also played in Rugbyfest, going undefeated in their three games. The Jewels trounced LV Rogers of Trail and Chatelech of Sechelt, dominating the score sheet 30 to 0 in both games. The team triumphed in a closer match against Valleyview, winning 10 to 5 after a scoreless first half.
