It was surprises all around in the Boys Elite bracket at the North American Invitational 7s in Salt Lake City on Friday.

The big news is that the defending champion Upright Rugby Rogues were summarily thumped by the USA South Panthers. Upright did enough to make the quarterfinals, but the South made a massive statement in beating the Ontario team 38-7.

"Defense and rucks, defense and rucks, that's what we've been saying all along," said Mohammed Abdullah, who scored a breakaway try and was a monster all day for the South.



"We've been focusing on working together and it just seemed to come together," the Panthers' Zach Rademacher added.

The South defeated the Rocky Mountain Rebels 24-12 to open their account, while Upright had to work for it and escaped Herriman 29-22.

"Herriman's a fantastic team and we were so happy to play them," Upright standout Kevin Vertkas said. "We were happy to get out there with a couple of big boys and test ourselves early."

But the test would come a game later. The South weathered an early onslaught from Upright and gave up a try but worked very hard on their cover defense. Then the Panthers started breaking through with Rademacher to the outside.

The South soon led 12-7 and then broke it open.

Smelling blood, the Panthers pounced with Diourney Cadet scoring a key try. Abdullah, Diego Haro, and Cameron Tompkins all made big plays as Upright found themselves on the business end of a 38-7 defeat.

Tompkins was an animal on defense and poached the ball superbly. It all came together for the South.

Upright managed to pick themselves up to smack around the Rocky Mountain Rebels and live to play another day. Meanwhile, the South held off Herriman 26-19 to finish 3-0. Herriman was close to going 3-0, but High School All-American Gabe Mahuinga said they devolved too much into selfish play at key moments.

In Pool B, Atlantis U17s gave Eagle Impact all they could handle, but EIRA won that game 33-17 despite what head coach Brendan Keane said was some desultory tackling.



Against Cobra Academy, EIRA didn't see the ball for the first half of the opening frame but still managed to pull away for a 31-7 win. After Cobra dominated possession and territory but failed to score, EIRA started to roll when a turnover led to a length-off-the-field movement and a try for Steven Benson. Cobra's defensive organization let them down a bit, leading to tries from Eric Naposki and Inoke Waqavesi.

In the second half, Kyle van Tonder sidestepped his way to paydirt and Naposki got another one.

"We played better in the first half then we did in the second, but we stayed patient and did a good job to just play good team defense and wait for our opportunities," EIRA's Jack Bradfield said.

That win put EIRA on course to take the pool, and they finished that off with a 48-0 shutout of Rock Rugby Academy. Atlantis U17s, having lost to Rock, managed to beat Cobra 33-17 to make all three teams 1-2. Atlantis took second in the pool on points difference.

"Our offense did great against what we thought was the best team in the tournament [EIRA]," Atlantis player Patrick Orth said. "We've just met but a lot of us got here on Tuesday and working to get to know each other."

The Atlantis U18 team looked large and in charge by going 2-0 against Rhino Rugby Academy and Atavus but ran into some problems against an athletic Center Parkway Harlequins that played with a lot of desire.

Center Parkway ran out to an early lead, and Atlantis fell into bad habits. Too many players tried to do things on their own, and as a result, when the comeback came, they didn't have enough time.

Atavus had a shot to beat Rhino and make it a three-way tie for 2-1, but they were upended by the Southern California team. Center Parkway finished first in the group and Atlantis in second.

And in Pool D, a late pullout meant this was a three-team pool. The Canadian Misfits slammed the Portland Pumas and then held off a solid Utah Academy Lions 12-10 to take the pool.

So that sets up the cup quarterfinals as follows:

Atlantis U17s vs. USA South (Field 1) --  9:40 AM
Utah Lions vs. Center Parkway (Field 2) -- 9:40 AM
EIRA vs. Upright (Field 1) -- 10 AM
Atlantis U18s vs. Canadian Misfits (Field 2) -- 10am

In the consolation bracket:

Rock Rugby vs. Rocky Mountain Rebels
Herriman vs. Cobra Academy
Atavus All-Stars vs. Portland Pumas
Rhinos Rugby Academy -- Bye

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