With a victory Saturday over Nelson’s L.V. Rogers Secondary, the Southridge Storm have already guaranteed that they’ll at least tie the school’s best-ever performance at BC High School AA Rugby Championships.
The Storm, seeded 10th in the 16-team tourney, defeated No. 7 L.V. Rogers 28-7 last weekend in Kelowna, meaning they can finish no worst than eighth in the province, tying a school-best mark.
They now face their toughest test of the season, however – a quarter-final date with No. 2-seeded Brentwood College Wednesday in Abbotsford.
Storm coach Paul Doig called his squad “a heavy underdog” heading into the match, adding that Brentwood is good enough to give most of the province’s top AAA teams a run for their money.
“They’re strong, for sure, and we’re realistic, but it’s all about confidence, and we have that now after our win in Kelowna,” he said.
The winner of Wednesday’s match will move on to the final four bracket, while the loser will battle for positions five through eight.
Against Rogers, the Storm – who have a Grade 11-heavy roster – got tries from Sean Quinn, Max Ferguson and Alex Dobbie, while Grade 10 fullback Tim Stephens had 13 points, with three penalty kicks and two conversions.
Southridge’s man-of-the-match was prop Anaahat Dhanju, who Doig said “just dominated in the scrummaging.”
Southridge has not played Brentwood this season, but lost to them in the first round of provincials last year, 50-7.
“But it’s a different crew for us this time,” noted Doig, who added that his team will need to play a speed game against their much-bigger opponents if they are to enjoy any success.
“We have a lot of skill, just not a lot of size, and Brentwood has both. They probably have guys up front who outweigh our guys by 20, 30 even 40 pounds, so we’re going to have to move to the ball to our backs and get them running.”
The game kicks off at 11 a.m.