It was an all-Langley battle for ninth place at the B.C. senior boys 2A provincial rugby championships.
The Poppy Redhawks and the Mountain Eagles squared off on Saturday at Abbotsford’s Exhibition Park on the final day of the provincial championships, with the Redhawks prevailing 13-10.
The Redhawks entered the 16-team tournament seeded ninth and the team won their final three games after an opening round loss, 26-19, to No. 8 Brentwood College.
Poppy rebounded from that defeat to win a trio of narrow games, 17-15 over Smithers, 13-7 over LV Rogers and then the win over Mountain.
While Poppy did not fulfill their pre-tournament goal of finishing top eight, coach Kyle Barry was impressed the team was not discouraged by an opening round loss, noting they were one of only two teams — the provincial champion St. Michael’s University the other — to win three or more consecutive games at provincials.
And while the Redhawks maintained their pre-tournament ranking, the Eagles went up a handful of spots, starting 14th but finishing 10th.
After losing 51-3 to No. 3 Collingwood, Mountain responded with a 25-14 win over Frances Kelsey and a 17-10 victory over G.W. Graham. Both Frances Kelsey and Graham were higher seeds than the Eagles.
Poppy’s Logan Belansky and Mountain’s Brian Trieu were named to the Commissioners XV.
