(Photo: Humboldt No. 8 Aoibheann Cline scored 30 of the team's 50 points.)

Heading into today’s semifinal at the Pacific Coast Women DII College Championship, Humboldt coach Jon Mooney knew the outcome of the match hinged on how the team came out in the opening minutes. In a similar position as last year's playoffs, when Humboldt came out flat against Washington State, the team resolved not to repeat its mistake against Western Washington today.

And the team came through with a 50-12 win for the final’s berth against Washington State.

“I thought our team injuries and general soreness would be bigger factors than they turned out to be,” Mooney said. “The team really stepped it up. Everything we've been working on for the past year was coming together, we were connecting, and our continuity made all the difference.”

Despite the final score, the match wasn’t a runaway win for Humboldt. In the first half, the Flames scored their two lone tries that indirectly resulted from Humboldt penalties. Western Washington was very competitive in the breakdowns and outplayed Humboldt in the set pieces. The Humboldt scrum especially suffered, but that was more a reflection of available personnel.

“During halftime, I talked about supporting breakaways,” Mooney said. “We had a couple of linebreaks, but the ballcarriers went unsupported, were tackled after 30 meters, and we lost the ball. In the second half, I saw a bigger team take the field and they really turned it on.”

Once Humboldt shored up its support lines, the team’s open-field flair took centerstage.

“When we get our support runner there, we can really roll down the field,” Mooney said. “We’re good at passing out of the tackle, popping from the ground, or as soon as someone gets tackled, the pick-and-go. We were able to do all that before the defensive line had time to realign, and were able to go, and go, and go again.”

No. 8 Aoibheann Cline scored 30 points on the day with four tries and five conversions. All of the usual suspects stood out on the day – scrumhalf and captain Annie Fehrenbach, lock Adriana Conrad-Forrest, and rookies Chlesea Brunett and Jordan Ludtke responded well to post-season pressure.

“Western Washington is a solid team, and honestly, I didn’t feel comfortable that we would win until the end of the game,” Mooney said. “At no point did I think they couldn’t come back because they were strong.”

Washington State and UC Santa Cruz took the pitch afterward, and Humboldt watched on as WSU won 84-5.

“We played them last year in the play-ins, and as long as we don’t do what we did last year – falling asleep for 20 minutes – we can really challenge them,” Mooney said. “They’re dominated by their hard running, fast-paced backs, and their 10/12 [Alexis and Megan Bonny] dominated the game. Their forwards are mobile, but it’s their backs that put them over the top.”

Mooney wasn’t too worried about the intimidation factor. Instead, the players looked for weaknesses in Washington State’s game and brainstormed ways to take advantage of them tomorrow.

But regardless of what happens tomorrow, Mooney is already so proud of his team. Humboldt has been wholly focused on this semifinal and hasn’t looked beyond achieving today’s win. Humboldt is heading to nationals and if the team wins tomorrow, it will play So Cal champ CSU – Northridge; otherwise, Wyoming will await the team in the first round of nationals.

Old Puget Sound pulled off a big upset in stylish fashion, defeating defending Super League champs SFGG 61-35 at SFGG’s home ground.

(Several earlier reports had the score at 60-36, but that was apparently a mistake from the official scorer.)

OPSB produced a wild and free-flowing second half to put the game away, showcasing some outstanding running from a team that boasted Fiji 7s star Ratu Emosi Vucago, USA 7s star Mike Palefau, and try-scoring speedster Fili Botitu.

The teams traded penalty goals early, with flyhalf Russell Armstrong getting one for Beach and flyhalf Volney Rouse doing the same for Golden Gate.

Botitu scampered in for his first try which, with Armstrong’s conversion, made it 10-3.

SFGG hit back with a John Thomas try, unconverted. But OPSB got a momentum-changing play. After a goal line stand, flanker Kellen Gordon intercepted a pass and rambled all the way for a try. 17-8 OPSB. Then Palefau made his presence felt in his first OPSB game, scoring to make it 22-8.

Shaken, SFGG had more to endure. A red card for a dump or tip tackle by fullback Jone Naqica (corrected from previous article) put SFGG down a man for the second half, but still the Bay Area club replied with another try from Thomas.

Mose Timoteo then added a try of his own, and with both of those converted by Rouse, the game was tied 22-22.

But the next twenty minutes belonged to OPSB, notching four tries in a torrid span. Second row Aaron Fry, Vucago, Gordon again, and then sub (and another USA 7s player) Miles Craigwell all scored.

Armstrong converted three.

SFGG prop Paula Fukafuka and flanker Tom Rooke touched down for SFGG but by then they were playing too much catchup.

OPSB ended the scoring to make it 61-35.

San Francisco’s Paul Keeler was philosophical after the game “We made some mistakes early, we gave up some soft tries and there was the game really. Ultimately we try to turn our defense into attack and it is hard to do that against a team that is good at disrupting breaks.  You learn more from your defeats than your wins…we got away with some sloppy play recently and still won and we have learned the hard lesson that we are beatable”.

OPSB head coach Evan Haigh had said his team was looking for a Super League title, and this result certainly makes everyone sit up and take notice.

“One of the biggest things we wanted to improve on from last week was the ability to execute when we made breaks and that was the big piece that allowed us to score points,” he said.

Haigh said the defenses on both sides weren’t bad, but there was a lot of turnover ball.

“Big for us today among others were the front row who laid a good platform that enabled us to have go-forward ball.”

The two teams will meet again in the last week of the regular season in what promises to be another intriguing encounter, this time in Seattle.

SFGG, by virtue of getting a bonus point for four tries, stays in firt place at 2-1, while OPSB is right behind them at 2-0.