In The News: Newberg rugby marches on to state

Written by: Seth Gordon, Newberg Graphic 

The Tigers down two-time defending champions Union 24-14 to advance to title game

PORTLAND — The Newberg boys rugby team had plenty of motivation heading into its state semifinal contest Saturday versus Union.

Two years ago, the Titans topped the Tigers in the state final to spoil an undefeated season and capture the first of back-to-back Rugby Oregon Varsity Premiership championships.

Earlier this season, Union scrambled to score three late tries and upend Newberg 32-31 to hand Newberg its lone loss of the regular season.

But perhaps more importantly, the Tigers had a game plan to prevent the kind of big plays that led to their undoing in the first matchup, specifically getting outflanked by Union's speedy wings and backs.

Deploying more of a flat line of defense across the field, Newberg stifled the Titans' offense all day en route to a 24-14 win at Delta Park in Portland.

"We just stayed flat on defense and keeping spread out because usually we flow, but this game we stayed nice and spread out to cover the whole field," scrum half Ryan McCarthy said. "We'd never beaten Union before, so it was our time. We knew we could do it with this team. We just played our game, came out and executed."

McCarthy appeared to score the opening try on a run around the left side, but was judged to have let his legs touch out of bounds as he was sliding to put the ball on the ground in the try zone.

The Tigers defense, however, kept Union hemmed in near its own goal line and McCarthy scored just a few minutes later, deftly kicking a soft punt over the Titans line before gathering the ball in the try zone for a 5-0 lead.

Newberg avoided a costly error when a turnover sprung Union for a long run that flipped field position, but a foul brought the play back and wing Charlie McLean scored off a scrum shortly thereafter to give the Tigers a 10-0 lead by halftime.

With the defense preventing Union from mounting any sustained drives, Newberg controlled possession throughout and outside of long runs resulting from mishandled passes or fumbles, the Titan offense was held in check.

Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened early in the second half, as Union made one pass following a Tiger turnover that sprung the recipient free for a 50-yard scoring run.

With the conversion kick, that cut Newberg's lead to 10-7 and turned what seemed to be a one-sided contest into a tight affair in less than a minute.

The Tigers responded with a drive to within five yards of Union's try line, but another turnover resulted in a long Titan run that flipped the field position. The Newberg defense turned Union away and the Tigers marched back down the field, with Geoff Carstensen finishing off the second of two golden opportunities to hit pay dirt. McCarthy followed up by nailing a long conversion kick to make it 17-7 and Newberg appeared to be in full control once again.

After collecting the ensuing kickoff (in rugby, the scoring team receives the kick), Newberg broke through with a long run up the middle and eventually pushed the advantage to 24-7 with a second try from McLean and a second kick from McCarthy.

"The last time we played this team, they came back on us and scored three tries to win, so it was good that the boys really rebounded," Newberg coach Rick Rogers said. "I think Ryan McCarthy, our No. 9, played exceptionally well. Grant Huerena, one of our wings, had the best game I've seen him play. Charlie, our other wing, also played really well. The big boys up front did their jobs. They really controlled the pace of the ball and the tempo."

Union did take advantage of another Newberg miscue to score on a long run to make it 24-14, but it was too little too late. McCarthy even had a try held up on the final play of the game.

The Tigers (6-1) will now take on Portland Pumas of Central Catholic (6-0-1) at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Western Oregon University in Monmouth.

With a win, Newberg would claim its second-ever state championship, though its first came before rugby became a school-sponsored sport and came in the lowest of three divisions in Rugby Oregon at the time.

"That would be awesome because we would get a banner in our school, the first rugby one," junior Ryan Montague said. "That would just be incredible. I'd be super proud of us and our guys."