7's Championship Week 1 Match Report

7's Championship Week 1 Match Report

Last night at Cook Park the boys began the playoff round of the local summer 7's series. Queen City went in as the number 3 overall seed out of 9 teams, after pool play the past 5 weeks. City would face our arch rivals the Harlequins in the first match. The tournament is set up as double elimination which we didn't think we would need, however the Quins had other ideas.

Roster: Hayden Kinnear, Scott Trench, Bryan Gustafson, Steve "Frosty" Morrison, Loren Baker, Jake Kinch, Ty Johnson, Juan Ureta, Alex Knorr, Eric Goetsch, Adam Kuhl, Kyle Harpster, Matty Williams.

First Round Match: Queen City 12 - Harlequins 19
The boys started off the match flying. The orange and black kicked to the Quins and immediately turned the ball over. The ball was shipped to Ty who backed himself and raced in for a try in the corner. Unfortunately the conversion was unlucky, 5-0 Rams at 1'. The teams then traded possession and City was keeping the pressure up and playing inside the Quins half. However, in the 5' minute in what appeared to be a clear cut City penalty the Sir decided he had enough back chat from Bryan Gustafson for helping him ref (which the Sir needed) and he gave Bryan his marching orders to the bin for 2 minutes. The Quins didn't waste the man advantage as they raced in 2 converted try's at the 6' mark and right at the death of Halftime for a 14-5 advantage.
The orange and black were not about to back down though and immediately went to work off the kickoff. The Rams started playing better and moving the ball. Good hands saw the ball out wide to Hayden who juked the last defender and then used some "Shake and Bake" to make sure he wasn't caught from behind. City had closed the gap to 12-14 at the 8'. The match had a feel of whoever scored next would likely win. Once again the teams were feeling each other out. Unfortunately for the orange and black it was the Quins who were able to score next at the 11' to extend their lead to 12-19. The boys weren't about to back down and threw everything at the Quins. The Quins defense was holding tough. City had one last chance after stringing the Quins defense out, Loren looked to put Alex through a hole, but the pass was just a little off and the ball trickled forward for a knock on and final whistle went. Full time 12-19 Quins.

Second Round Match: Queen City 71 - Rush 0
The boys were still smarting from the first match and unfortunately for the Rush they were the recipients of the fury from the loss to the Quins. For the third time this summer the boys went for 60+ points. I am truly astounded that the boys put this amount of points on the board, incredible. The boys came out from the kickoff with something to prove. Right off the kickoff the ball was stolen by Juan and he raced in for the try 5-0 at 20 seconds. The next try was almost an exact replica. The Rush made a couple of passes off the kickoff, but City turned the ball over and Juan ran his second in at 1:30 gone, 10-0 Rams. The Rams kicked off and this time the ball was knocked on by the Rush. Off the ensuing scrum the ball was shipped wide to Alex, he scooted around the corner and touched down, the conversion was sent through to extend the lead 17-0 at 4'. The next try was scored by Jake as the Rush were a little sloppy with the handling. The ball was on the floor and Jake did his world cup impersonation and chipped through to touch down, Scott once again was true to extend the lead to 24-0 at 6'. The Rush decided to try a new approach and kicked over off the kickoff. Jake was there to cover and then was able to offload to Alex who made one would be tackler miss and then race for pay dirt. The conversion was good and the whistle went for halftime 31-0 Queen City in command.

The second half was more of the same from the orange and black. Right off the kickoff the boys sent the ball through the hands and found Hayden on the wing. He turned the corner and was gone to extend the lead to 38-0 at 7'. The boys then got a penalty on the ensuing kickoff and went quick and scored to extend the lead to 45-0 (not sure who got this one as I didn't write it down). In the 9' minute Matty made a nice break, the ball was recycled and Kyle was able to get on the score board, 52-0. Then Scott was cheeky with the kickoff and kicked a roller to the 10 meter line and recovered. The boys were in support and hands found Loren who finished off the move to extend the lead 59-0. Off the ensuing kickoff the boys created a turnover with good defensive pressure and shipped the ball wide to Hayden to take the orange and black to 66-0. Frosty got in on the action off the next kickoff. The kick was sent high by Bryan Gustafson now at flyhalf and the ball bounced off the Rush players shoulder and bounced directly in the path of Frosty. He took it at pace and raced in to finish the match 71-0 for the Rams. Truly remarkable to score that many points in 14 minutes. The boys rebounded nicely after the loss to the Quins.

The playoffs continue next week with a 6pm kickoff vs. the loser of Glendale/Littleton match.