First provincial rugby title in a decade for St. George’s ends Shawnigan Lake’s unprecedented run …

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Phil Berna’s second try of the match, coming in injury time, carried the day for the St. George’s Saints, lifting the Vancouver school to a 15-12 win over the Shawnigan Lake Stags and their first B.C. boys Triple A rugby championship title in a decade, Saturday at Abbotsford’s Rotary Stadium.

 

“Their coaches are very good, and they knew what they had to do to beat us,” said relieved St. George’s head coach Mike Stiles after his side prevented the Stags from winning an unprecedented sixth straight provincial title, and in doing so won St. George’s first crown since 2004, in large part to a pair of try-saving tackles in the final five minutes. “It’s a game that could have gone either way, but our defence was amazing.”

 

Added Stags head coach Tim Murdy: “It was a good, hard-fought final.”

 

After the Stags built a 12-3 lead early in the second half behind a pair of tries from Matt Beukeboom and Ben McKinnon, it certainly looked like the tide was flowing in the favour of the Vancouver Island powerhouse.

 

Berna, however, took the ball off a line-out and ran right through the Stags for a 40-metre try to make it 12-8. Then, off a broken play with about two minutes remaining, was able to find the line again for the win. Theo Sauder, who had earlier made good on a penalty, added a convert to round out the scoring.

 

The level of competition between the province’s top two sides was outstanding this season, Saturday’s three-point Saints win book-ending an early-season 10-8 win by the Stags. Shawnigan Lake beat St. George’s 17-12 in last season’s B.C. final.

 

“With about eight minutes left, it seemed like the game might be over,” admitted Stiles, “but our forwards never gave up and that is what has characterized this entire team this season.”

 

Training sessions, in fact, were pushed to a new level because the coaching staff had more than a sneaking feeling that if the title was to be won, it would have to go through Shawnigan Lake.

 

“In practice, we worked our guys so hard, because we knew they had to be prepared to play this particular game,” said Stiles. “They had to be ready, mentally and physically, for this particular game.”

 

Saints open-side flanker Braden Lukas, who epitomized the St. George’s defence, was the team’s selection to the post-tourney Commissioner’s XV.

 

ROCKRIDGE GET BOUNCE-BACK GAME THEY WERE LOOKING FOR, KNOCK OFF COLLINGWOOD IN AA FINAL

 

It was more than B.C. high school rugby’s ultimate 2014 rubber match.It was the bounce-back game that Adam Martin and the rest of the Rockridge Ravens needed to become provincial champions.

 

Martin, almost a year-and-a-half into his rehabilitation from a torn ACL, scored a try and provided huge leadership as the Ravens topped its West Vancouver crosstown rivals, the Collingwood Cavaliers, 28-15 to win the B.C. boys Double A rugby title Saturday at Abbotsford’s Rotary Stadium.

 

“Even when he could barely walk, he would still be at training, trying to be as active as he could be,” said Ravens’ head coach Perino Zambon of Martin, the team’s Commissioner’s XV rep.

 

“He got his surgery done, and he came back and his play was amazing.”

 

The same could be said for the Ravens-Cavaliers rivalry this season, the pair locked at a win apiece heading into the title tilt.

 

“We have to credit Collingwood for being such a great program,” said Zambon of a team which entered the game as defending champs and were making their fifth-straight championship-game appearance.

 

“It’s great to win against a great rival.”

 

Senior Wyatt Vickerstaff and Grade 11s Brandon Leschert and Jackson Claridge scored the Ravens’ other tries. And on a gusty day, senior co-captain Angus Carroll kicked all four converts.

 

Rockridge last won the title in 2010. Many of the current seniors came to the first team as grade 10s in 2012, helping the Ravens to third place that season, then second place last season after a 20-10 finals loss to Collingwood. And that climb from third to second to first was not lost on the head coach.

 

“I know this is very cliched to say, but I am lucky to have been able to coach these guys,” continued Zambon, whose team was coming into the final after a draining semifinal victory Thursday over Victoria’s St. Michaels University School. “This is about as fairy tale as you can get.”

 

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