National Club 7s: Seattle, Old Blue Advance To Cup Final

Seattle and Old Blue will play for the Men's Cup after defeating Belmont Shore and Kansas City respectively. Each team had to work in their semi-final but it will come down to two teams widely expected to make the final. On the women's side of things Old Blue and San Diego will contest their first final.

The first semi-final saw Seattle top Belmont Shore 26-5. The match was tight early as both teams struggled to find a way through the other's defense. That changed about halfway through the half when a series of nice passes found Tim Stanfill on the wing where he leaped over a defender for the try. 7-0 to Seattle. Seattle were far from perfect in the match, especially on the disciplinary end. A first half yellow card would prove costly as Jack Tracy would score for Belmont to make it 7-5. That's how it would go into the break.

In the second half Seattle found their rhythm. William Rasileka was the beneficiary of good running from his teammates. Minutes later John Cullen took a quick tap at the five meter line and rumbled over almost untouched for the try. Rocco Mauer would finish the scoring with a late try.

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Like the first semi-final, the second semi-final saw both Old Blue and Kansas City come out in a defensive stalemate. Old Blue pinned Kansas City back early but weren't able to make much of it. The Blues finally got into their own half when Kendrick Scott made a nice run. He was stopped but it did eventually allow Gannon Moore to score. With the conversion the Blues led 7-0 at the half.

Old Blue wasted no time in making an impact in the second half. Straight from the kick Michael St. Claire scored. However, the conversion was missed meaning the the Blues still held a 7-5 lead. Just a minute later Luke Hume found the gap in the defense and raced through to give Old Blue their first lead at 12-7. That try seemed to galvanize Old Blue. They pressed hard and were soon rewarded with another try from St. Claire to bring the final to 17-7.

NYAC advanced to the Plate final with a 33-19 win over the Chicago Lions. Troy Hall scored twice for NYAC with Stephen Sanchez, Justin Hundley, and Greg Voight adding one a piece. Martin Iosefa had two tries for Chicago. Facing them in the Plate final will be the Denver Barbarians. They rebounded from their shock loss to Kansas City with a 24-7 win over the East Palo Alto Razorbacks.

New Orleans continued to try and show that their missing the Cup rounds was unlucky by thrashing the Maryland Exiles 45-7. They will play 1823 who beat Santa Monica 26-12. In the Shield, Hawaii beat the Austin Blacks 17-12 and Schuylkill River beat Atlanta 29-5.

Women

Old Blue have had a strong summer and it continued with a 14-0 win over NOVA. Old Blue were aggressive at the tackle and spent much of the match with possession. NOVA were tough to breakdown but Old Blue's relentless pressure eventually paid off. In the other semi-final the San Diego Surfers jumped on the All Blues and did look back with a 29-14 win.

Down lower in the women's competition New York and the D.C. Furies advanced to the Bowl final. New York beat Youngbloodz 10-5 and the Furies beat the Mountain Selects 27-7. The Shield will come down to Philadelphia and the Bluebonnets.


Women's Scores

Cup semi-finals

Old Blue 14-0 NOVA
San Diego 29-14 All Blues

Plate semi-finals

Chicago Lions 31-0 ICEF
ORSU 12-0 Atlanta

Bowl semi-finals

D.C. Furies 27-7 Mountain Selects
New York 10-5 Youngbloodz

Shield semi-finals

Philadelphia 48-0 Mana Wahine
Bluebonnets 19-15 Sacramento Amazons