Photos by John Fajardo

Well, better late than never—the Belmont Shore U19 Rugby Youth team, made up almost entirely of Moore League athletes, gave their mothers a nice present on Sunday by beating the LA Cougars for the SoCal Championship.  The game was played Sunday afternoon after a power outage canceled the match Saturday night, but the local boys seemed to benefit from the extra night’s sleep.

They started out slow, with a 17-8 lead at halftime, then let the Cougars come back in the early goings, but with the score at 17-15, came up with a huge Try Line (the rugby equivalent of a goal line stand) to keep the Cougars from scoring.  Then they raced out to a 36-15 win that sends them to the national championship tourney May 21-24.  Enjoy these great photos from John Fajardo, and prepare to hear more about this team in the coming weeks—congrats to the players, coaches, and parents.