After a bit of a scare on Saturday, The Woodlands Boys HS team rebounded with a fairly comprehensive performance to beat the Dallas Harlequins Colts and win the Texas HS championships.

The Woodlands team felt a little stifled in Saturday's semifinal. Most of that stifling came from Cy Fair, which controlled a good portion of possession and gave Woodlands few opportunities to find space. Some of that stifling came from the Woodlands team itself, which chose to go into contact too much rather and look for space. 

With Referee Leah Berard refereeing a fast-moving game, Sunday's final was a different story. Woodlands took one look at the Quins Colts' massive forwards and decided to keep out of contact and avoid a slog in the breakdown. it worked.

With flyhalf Kieran Farmer launching the attacks, and with players in support thinking pass as well as ruck, the Woodlands players were able to move the ball quickly.

A quick tap on a penalty set up a forwards' surge over the line. Farmer then produced a brilliant piece of rugby off a quick tap - he grubbered ahead, followed the bounce, and somehow gathered the ball and went over. The Colts weren't giving up on the play, though, and the final hit as Farmer dove over knocked the ball loose, so not try.


Soon, though, a nifty pass from Farmer set up a try in the corner. Some more quick hands did the same late in the first half. And then it was the forwards, again offloading quickly and not trudging slowly through the rucks, and over they went.

Up 22-0 at halftime, Woodlands cruised to a 48-15 win. The Colts didn't back down, but they couldn't come back from such a deficit.

Head Coach Phil Beck praised Berard's quick-thinking refereeing, which allowed his team to play quickly.

"We had a talk with the players after yesterday's game about not playing into the other team's hands," said Beck. "The players realized the mistakes we made and that it definitely wasn't our type of game. We had a re-think and a re-group and the boys really responded."

Farmer and captain Stijn Albers were excellent, but Beck and his coaches gave player-of-the-game honors to the entire team. It was a special moment for Beck, who retires from coaching the Woodlands team after this season. His first season, 11 years ago, his team was winless. Now they are champions.


Meanwhile, after almost overturning Woodlands on Saturday, Cy Fair fell 24-20 to Westlake. For Head Coach Jason Spoddick, it was a tough Saturday in that his three-time defending champion Chaps were unable to four-peat. However, he said his players dug deep, and played for the team's legacy.