NAI 7s Boys Elite Latest

Update on the Boys Elite at the NAI 7s Day Two

Aug 5, 2017 by Alex Goff

We're down to four in the Boys U18 Elite bracket at the North American Invitational 7s in Salt Lake City.

On Saturday, Eagle Impact knocked off the Upright Rugby Rogues 20-12 in a surprising quarterfinals matchup that was made manifest thanks to Upright's upset loss to USA Rugby South the day before.

"I worried about that game all night," EIRA's Eric Naposki said. "We figured we'd be playing them in the semis or the final. They're a tough team, and we needed a lot of heart to win."

And win they did. EIRA rested some of their big forwards on Friday in order to handle the size of Upright, and it worked. EIRA led 15-12 with time winding down and muffed a two-on-one that gave Upright one more shot. However, the Rogues weren't able to score, and EIRA scored late to finish it off. EIRA head coach Brendan Keane wasn't overly impressed with his team's defense or how they started, but the finish was good.

In the other quarterfinals, Center Parkway continued their excellent run with a tight 22-17 defeat of Atavus Academy Utah. USA South Panthers won a thriller 22-21 over Atlantis U17s. And Atlantis U18s won a 17-14 thriller against the Canadian Misfits. Down 7-5, Atlantis set up Jesse Capriotti for a try in the corner and Mike Weir converted. But a poor grubber from Weir allowed the Misfits to storm back and score under the posts to take a 14-12 lead.

Atlantis received the restart with less than a minute to go, and Weir drew a couple of defenders before offloading to Capriotti, who raced on a diagonal to the far corner from 85 meters away. It was the Doylestown wing's third try of the game and sealed the win for Atlantis.

In Saturday's semifinals, EIRA plays Center Parkway and Atlantis takes on the South.

In the consolation bracket, Herriman won a very fractious and grouchy game over Cobra thanks to a hard-charging, menacing play of Zack Barker. Atavus started poorly, but once they got the ball moving and got Bo Mailau in space the All-Stars outlasted the Portland Pumas 20-7.

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The Rocky Mountain Rebels put together a nice team effort, scored early, and rolled 26-19 over Rock Rugby to make the semis with Herriman and Atavus. Rhinos Rugby Academy got a bye to the semis.