OMBAC
RUGBYhttp://www.ombacrugby.com
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| OMBAC Defeats Unicorns For SoCal Title (Will Head To Dallas For Sweet Sixteen) |
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29 April 2000 –
Santa Barbara, CA – The OMBAC rugby team accomplished its
first goal of the season today - winning the Southern California
title – as they trounced the defending champion Huntington Beach
Unicorns 27-10 at UC Santa Barbara’s Harder Stadium. It was OMBAC’s
ninth Southern California championship in the past 11 years and with
the victory, OMBAC finished league play with a perfect 11-0 mark and
their overall record improved to 15-0-1.
Unlike the last time these teams met, when the Unicorns jumped out to a big first half lead, it was OMBAC that started strong and got stronger as the game progressed. OMBAC pressured the Unicorns right from the opening kickoff and were rewarded with two Kyle Aspinall penalty kicks in the game’s first six minutes. OMBAC continued to dominate play with adventurous attacking play and rock-solid defense that continually frustrated the hard charging Unicorns. OMBAC improved its position at the 25th minute when veteran back, Ed Schram, ran uncontested for a score from 22 meters out for the game’s first try. The play was set up by a well executed dummy crash by Dave DiSorbo as the fullback attracted two defenders while the hole opened up for Schram. Aspinall added the extras to make it OMBAC 13 – Huntington Beach 0. With ten minutes left in the half OMBAC struck again. From a counterattack which started from their own side of the 50, Malakai Delai turned the corner on his opposite and with the cover defense approaching kicked towards the Unicorn line. It was a nicely weighted kick stopping just short of the line where Aspinall made the nice pickup and carried the final few meters for OMBAC’s second try of the afternoon. Although he missed the extra points, his touch down put OMBAC up by 18. The only damage Huntington Beach could muster was a penalty kick as OMBAC took a commanding 18-3 lead into the break. OMBAC continued to be the team with the upper hand in the second half. Although an apparent try was wiped out by the officials, two more Aspinall penalties increased the lead to 24-3 before the Unicorns managed their only try of the match – a disputed one at that as the officials missed a clear knock-on by a Unicorns’ player on his way to the try line. The conversion made it a 24-10 contest but the outcome was never really in doubt as the match came to an end with Aspinall notching his fifth penalty of the match. Aspinall made amends for his poor kicking display in the semi-final victory over Santa Monica by slotting six of seven kicks and with the try had a personal tally of 20 points. Director of Rugby, Bing Dawson, acknowledged the strong showing by his flyhalf. "Kyle had a wonderful game. He made those early kicks to get us going and never let off the gas the whole match. As a team we did a very good job cleaning up our unforced errors while the defense and tackling was strong all the way down the line." With the win OMBAC will travel to Dallas on May 13-14 for its "Sweet Sixteen" pool play as the #1 seed from Southern California. If they should survive those two matches they will return to the U.S.A. National Final Four for the first time since 1996. Those matches will take place on June 3-4 in New Hampshire. OMBAC is on the road this weekend at Aspen as the Rugby Super League winds down. OMBAC currently trails the Western Division leading Gentlemen by nine points in the standings and needs to defeat their hosts, or Old Puget Sound Beach on May 20, to guarantee themselves a spot in the Super League postseason. The top two teams in each division meet in the Super League semi-finals on May 27. OMBAC Lineup -Josh
Bautista* 1 -Replacements -*
Graeme Walshe -OMBAC Scoring Summary -Tries: -Penalties: -Conversions: |