The Fulton Maroons will compete in the B.C. 7-aside Rugby Championships this weekend at St. George’s School in Vancouver.
In a rematch of last year’s Okanagan 7s Championship final, the KSS Owls grounded the Maroons 19-0 in the Valley finals Saturday at Grahame Park.
After going 4-0 in round-robin action, Fulton shut out the Salmon Arm Golds 19-0 in the semifinals. Salmon Arm stopped the Kelowna Christian Knights to take third place.
The Kalamalka Lakers ranked fifth, the Pleasant Valley Saints seventh and Vernon Panthers eighth.
It was a busy day at Grahame Park, with 10 senior teams and six junior teams playing more than 40 games.
The Maroons were led by multi-sport stars Dalton Anderson and Greg Hyde Saturday.
“They shone in all the games. Hyde was spectacular on defence and ran exceptionally well on offence. Anderson did very well in organizing the offence as 7s takes a great deal of patience. It’s like a game of keepaway where you keep control of the ball until there’s a break and then you penetrate weaknesses in the defensive line,” said Sr. Maroons’ head coach Rick Smith.
Kyle Richardson also had a stellar day for Fulton, making numerous tackles and picking weaknesses in the opposition defence.
Matt Parlee delivered Fulton’s tackle of the day in a game against the Immaculata Mustangs of Kelowna, causing a player to cough up the ball into the hands of Jesse Griffin, who romped 40 metres for a try.
Fulton hosts the Kal Lakers Thursday (4 p.m.) at Grahame Park.
In junior action, the Lakers went 5-0 in round-robin play to repeat as Okanagan champs, followed by VSS (4-1) and Fulton A team (3-2) in second and third respectively.
“Kal was the class of the competition, and defeated most teams handily after a narrow 10-5 victory over Fulton A in the first round,” said Jr. Maroons head coach Mike Scheller. “The top three teams were all very close.”
Standout performers for the Fulton A team were tackling machine Lucas Hofer, try-scoring Clark Richardson and hard-running Tanner Bishop.
For the B-side (0-5), Vance Ford was steady all day, Adam Wood was aggressive on the ball and Layne Greene impressed in his debut.
