Photos: Jackie Finlan
Sacramento (NorCal) defeated Emerald City (Pacific Northwest) 56-20 in the Pacific North championship and will represent the region at the DII Club National Championship. The Amazons will now head to the western regional championship in Fort Worth, Texas, on May 19-20, and accompany champions from the Pacific South (Old Pueblo), Red River and Frontier.
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Sacramento’s build-up to the Pacific North final could have been smoother, as both internal and external factors affected the team’s continuity.
“It was a bit rocky but we had such a great pool of experienced players that it just filled in the gaps when we needed,” Sacramento captain Leka Green said of some attrition. “We have a good core group of girls and we’ve been building good chemistry the last few games.
“It has been hard with our schedule,” the flanker continued. “Our league is funky because it’s a hybrid. Life West is DI and they’ve canceled on us, so there were gaps where we thought we were going to play but didn’t. It wasn’t ideal, but we’re happy with the end result.”
That end result is still evolving, and Saturday’s win is a big component. On Treasure Island Saturday, Sacramento deployed a relentless running game that snapped Emerald City’s defense as the phases mounted. Mudhens center Rachel Gonchar was the mark of fortitude, always busting off the line and cutting ballcarriers at the waist, but she was certainly a high point.
“We were expecting a physical game and our goal was to push the ball wide and try to use our speed on the outside. But the hardest problem of all was getting possession of the ball,” Emerald City coach John Woolen said. “We got a lot of penalties at the ruck. The referee was saying that we were going over the top and not supporting ourselves – that his interpretation and we have to play to that. But it was tough in the first half. Every time we got momentum, we got a penalty against us, and that halted our progress.”
Meanwhile Sacramento built a 24-point lead after 25 minutes, as flanker Tonya Wessman and outside center Ofo Mailangi, both of whom ended the day with three tries apiece, and No. 8 Meredith Conrad-Forrest scored. President and lock Liz Danielson added the conversions throughout the match. The NorCal side had the advantage in the scrum, walking over one try, and Conrad-Forrest was always a fingertip away from stealing a lineout.
The Mudhens sent a close-range score over the line to snap the shutout near the 30-minute mark, but then Mailangi and fellow center Kiana Saffings – a brutal pairing – tacked on tries for a 36-5 halftime lead.
During the break, Emerald City talked about coming out fast, scoring quickly, and chipping away at the lead, and the Seattle-area team succeeded in that goal with a try early on. But tackle completion continued to suffer, and the Amazons kept breaking through the middle for another three tries (Conrad-Forrest, Danielson, Mailangi) putting the game out of reach. The Mudhens got some nice breaks along the sideline and were able to connect on the run and in space, but just didn’t have enough possession to be competitive.
“I can’t complain, but honestly I thought we could have had a better game,” Green reflected on the entirety of the match. “In the past, we’ve been a ‘seat of our pants’ type of team, and while it’s worked for us, we’ve been getting some outside help from one of our player’s husbands and he’s given us some structure. He wasn’t here today, and we kind of went back to that old-school style of playing. It worked out, but if we stuck to the structure that he’s been implementing throughout the season, it would’ve looked a lot cleaner.”
Green attributed those mental slips to some shifting dynamics on the team, but is confident in the overall product. Green and several other players have represented the Amazons at DII club nationals in the past, and they’ll be the reference points as the NorCal team readies for Texas. Joining Sacramento is Old Pueblo, which defeated Las Vegas 61-31 in Saturday’s Pacific South championship, and the winners of Frontier and Red River, which will be decided by May 6.
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