Seawolves Defeat San Francisco Golden Gate

The Seattle Seawolves traveled to San Francisco and defeated San Francisco Golden Gate 45-0 on Saturday, January 5 at Ray Sheeran Field on Treasure Island.

Both teams will open their regular season at the end of January with Golden Gate opening their Pacific Rugby Premiership season on January 27, and the Seawolves opening defense of their 2018 title against the Glendale Raptors on January 27.

San Francisco Golden Gate has played one pre-season match against the Saint Mary’s College Gaels. The Seawolves played one other pre-season match against the Vancouver Island Crimson Tide.

A match preview may be viewed here. For Seattle Seawolves player article links, see squads below. Joey Iosefa played last season for the Houston SaberCats debuting as a reserve at center against Austin Elite Rugby. Scott Dean and Moses Lalasava played for the Seattle Saracens.

Match Recap

The match was competition from the start with Golden Gate’s defense performing well. The Seawolves opened the scoring with a try by Joey Iosefo, who picked up a loose ball for a try under the posts. Brock Staller then had an easy conversion for a 7-0 lead.

Seattle later would extend the lead to 14-0 after Dan Trierweiler received quick ball from Phil Mack for a try. Staller again converted for a 14-0 lead. Neither team would score again prior to halftime.

The Seawolves opened the second half with two tries. The first was by George Barton with Shalom Suniula’s Conversion bouncing off the posts. The second came soon after from a linebreak by William Rasileka, who offloaded to a support runner for a try. Suniula’s drop kick was then missed, but the Seawolves pushed their lead to 24-0.

A switch from Shalom Suniula to William Rasileka started another attack with the team then going through phases, reaching to within 5-meters before Gate was penalized. The Seawolves then attacked from a lineout with Vili Toluta’u going over for a try. Shalom Suniula’s drop kick was successful, pushing the lead to 31-0.

Gate had a strong run into Seawolves territory, but the Seawall held and Seattle attacked from a lineout at midfield. A turnover led to a Gate attack, but after a Seawolves penalty, Gate lost a lineout inside the Seawolves 22-meters, thwarting the attack.

It was then the Seawolves turn to advance the ball deep into Gate territory before a looseball resulted in a long Gate break. A chip ahead then returned possession to the Seawolves.

After successive penalties near in-goal, a Gate forward from sent to the bin. Another penalty then resulted in a penalty try, 38-0.

The Seawolves added a last try as Vili Toluta’u stripped the ball from an attacker and Eric Duechle finished for a try. Ben Cima slotted the conversion for a 45-0 win.

The Seawolves broke open a close match with a strong second half effort. The Golden Gate defense played well during the match, but handling errors thwarted drives. It was a rainy ball and wet ball created turnovers from both sides

Squads

San Francisco Golden Gate: 1 Toa Ngata 2 Neill Barrett 3 Gus Puamau 4 Luca Tani 5 Sam Peri 6 John Bulaich 7 Matangi Tonga 8 Akuila Usasele 9 Colby Stevens 10 Mike McCarthy 11 Pila Huihui 12 Taufa Molipeli 13 Jack Halalilo 14 Travis Benson 15 Ronan Orford 16 Henry Hall 17 Paul Santinelli 18 Spencer Sarver 19 Isaac Helu 20 Jeffrey Pelesauma 21 Jack Bacigalupi 22 Siaosi Nonu 23 Viliamo Soakai 24 Ollie Videgon

Seattle Seawolves: 1 Olive Kilifi 2 Dan Trierweiler 3 John Hayden 4 Jérémy Lenaerts 5 Brad Tucker (Match change Cam Polson) 6 Nakai Penny 7 Eric Duechle 8 Aladdin Schirmer 9 Phil Mack 10 Ben Cima 11 Dion Crowder 12 George Barton 13 Joey Iosefa 14 Brock Staller 15 Scott Dean 16 Kellen Gordon 17 Stephan Coetzee 18 Mike Shepherd 19 Taylor Krumrei 20 Cam Polson (Starting #5) 21 Vili Toluta’u 22 Cole Van Harn 23 Riekert Hattingh 24 JP Smith 25 Shalom Suniula 26 Moses Lalasava 27 Roland Suniula 28 William Rasileka 29 Peter Tiberio 30 Mat Turner