Colusa cuts down Redwood Empire, stays perfect

One game remains in the regular season and Colusa County Rugby Football Club is still undefeated after beating Redwood Empire of Santa Rosa 35-19 on Saturday at Egling Middle School in Colusa.

In their final home game of the season, Colusa (7-0) clinched the Northern California Rugby Football Union's West Conference title with the victory. Next Saturday, they face second place Shasta in Redding in the final game of the regular season.

The NCRFU has a different playoff format this season after expanding from two conferences to three, but Colusa is likely to grab a home playoff game based on points when playoffs begin on April 6.

Each victory counts as four points and each game with at least four tries counts for an additional four points. Colusa has scored at least four tries in every game except one, a 17-10 victory against the same Redwood Empire team back on Jan. 26.

"Playing our last game and then getting a couple weeks off to rest is going to be huge for us. We need to make it through the last game, play hard and get a little break to rest the legs," Colusa captain Cody Beckley said.

Chris Smith gave Colusa the early lead, scoring a try and making the kick, and the men in green held the lead the rest of the game. Nico Valencia added a long try a few minutes later and Smith made the kick 14-0.

Redwood Empire cut the lead in half with a sneaky try on the re-start after a penalty but Smith converted a penalty kick for Colusa just before the half to go into the break up 17-7.

Early in the second half, Redwood Empire scored on a long try but missed the kick, 17-12.

"They're a very tough squad, they play together quite a bit and they have a lot of big bodies, they're hard to bring down but we stuck in there and played with some heart today," Beckley said.

Gerardo Parra and Nathan Polit scored tries around another successful penalty kick by Smith, and Colusa took a 30-12 lead.

Redwood Empire scooped up a bad pass and cut the lead to 11 points but Juan Loza sealed the match with a try as time ran out for a 35-19 home victory.

"Our back line played well today, our pack played well today. We still have stuff to work on, you can always work to get in better shape, but to come out here and beat a team of that caliber feels great," Beckley said.

CONTACT Kirk Barron at 458-2121 or kbarron@tcnpress.com.