Black and Blue took first, second at state

The Flathead Valley Black and Blue came up gold and silver on May 22, at the Montana state rugby football tournaments held in Helena.

The boys’ squad rolled past the Missoula Mud Dogs 38-10 for its fifth title since the club’s inception in 2009; the girls rugby sevens lost to the Bitterroot Valley Koa Wahine 19-10 in the final.

The Black and Blue girls had leads of 5-0 and 10-7, getting a Gabby Allred try off a pop-pass from Kassidy Fuller-Farrar, and a Paisley Boyce try off a pass from Allred.

The Koe Wahine, who led 7-5 at halftime, answered the Boyce try with a quick score and conversion to lead 14-7, then scored again late.

“We ran out of gas,” Black and Blue coach Lance Heavirland said. “We had a chance to score at the end and just couldn’t get it done. A penalty took us out of bounds.

“I was really proud of those girls. I’ve never seen a high school girls team so ready to play. It was so much fun.”

The boys’ 15s also started quickly, and kept going. Alec Thomas scored early and often — three tries in all. After Thomas scored off an 8-pick, Fin Nadeau had the second try, off an “8-9” play with Thomas.

“The real beautiful play came the next time we had the ball — we ran 8-9-10 with Alec to Fin to Nolan White, after we stole the ball out of the scrum,” Heavirland said. “Sawyer Troue was able to steal the ball, and Alec was able to pick it up, draw a defender and pitch it to Fin.”

The Black and Blue led 21-5 and didn’t look back. Besides his try, White was successful on all five conversions and his lone penalty kick.

“Which is tough to do in rugby,” Heavirland said. “The best thing to say is, besides the final score, the defense was fantastic. This is probably the best tackling team I’ve ever coached.”