Last Friday was South Meck’s first appearance in the NC High School playoffs. We honored our seniors (Derwin Lewis, Brandon Sanders, Donzavius Guy, Titus Hadden and Malik Torres) before the match. We are going to miss these fine, young men

The match was played at the Sportsplex against rival Myers Park HS and kicked off at 7:30pm on a warm, humid night. From the opening kickoff you could see it was going to be one of those nights where our boys would have to work overtime against a very fast and physical Mustang side. South struggled in the set pieces (scrums and lineouts) and let scoring opportunities get away in the red zone but to the credit of how much heart these boys have, they never gave up the fight. Halftime score: South 12 – MP 31.

South came out of the halftime break with renewed energy and held MP scoreless for the majority of the second half. But again, the boys could not capitalize on penalties and set pieces. With zeroes on the clock, South forced a turnover deep in MP territory and punched in a try to end the match.

Final score: South 19 – MP 43. Super proud of the effort and heart and resilience our boys showed. Not once did they hang their heads or give up the fight. Upward and onward!!

South will face the winner of Hough HS and Providence HS on Fri May 5 at RRHS stadium at 6pm for the 3rd place Plate.  Kick off will be 6pm.  Make plans now!!!  ***Practices will be Tues – Wed – Thurs****

Tries: Keyon Barnes (1), Darius Gamble (1) and Connor Hayes (1)

Conversions: Raelin Carpenter (1) and Brandon Sanders (1)

Man of the Match: Keyon Barnes – forwards

Man of the Match:  Brandon Sanders – backs

– Coach Hayes

Myers Park defeated South Meck Friday night by the score of 36-3.  It was a very physical match and the South Meck Coaches are very proud of their team.

South Meck drops to 5-2 while Myers Park leads the standings at 6-0.  The Sabres have one more league match, against NW Guilford (4-2), before playoffs begin the weekend of April 29th.  A victory against NW Guilford would secure the first-ever playoff appearance for the Sabres.

– Coach Hawk

Don’t look now, but your South Meck HS Rugby Sabres are 5 – 1 after a very convincing win over Providence H.S. last night at the SportsPlex.  The boys worked hard in practices this week and maintained an intense focus on executing our game plan which was to play in-your-face defense and disrupt Providence when they had the ball and force turnovers which the Sabres did all night.

Providence’s offense was the result of 1 player and granted he was a beast of a player but that would not be nearly enough to thwart the Sabres juggernaut of an offense who have scored no less than 22 pts in a match all season and racking up 50 pts last night to take the win 50 – 24.  The Sabres did a good job of moving the ball to the edge of the field and give our speedsters an opportunity to run and run they did.  South Meck put in 5 tries in the first half and 3 more in the 2nd half.  Great job boys!!!

– Coach Hayes

The South Meck HS Sabres rugby team did not compete in the NC Ruggerfest a week ago so the boys were more than ready for action on Saturday morning (March 11) to take on the East Meck HS Eagles.  The Eagles are in a re-building year with new head coach Nate Preval. East Meck hosted the match at McClintock Middle School.

The Sabres took the opening match kick off for a quick score and from then on the flood gates were opened.  Halftime score was 50 to 0 and the final score was 109 to 0.  The Sabres improve to 4 – 1 on the season and now prepare to face their old nemesis Providence HS who defeated South Meck last year in the final match of the season to prevent South from making a first ever trip to the NC State Playoffs.

Hats off to East Meck for not asking for a forfeit and demanding to play the full 70 minutes.  The Eagles played a well organized structure but struggled to make tackles.  South Meck on the other hand showed that a week of rest does a body good and played “southern hemisphere” style running rugby with great lines, multiple phases, multiple passes all resulting in multiple tries.  And the South boys also recorded their first shut out ever allowing zero points from East Meck HS.

Tries:  Noah Cone, Sharome Henry, Jamel McClendon (2), Taran Heise, Connor Hayes (2), Seth McGuffin, Raelin Carpenter (2), Brandon Sanders (3), Derwin Lewis, Darius Gamble (2) and Zach Korbler.  Conversions:  Taran Heise (7) and Raelin Carpenter (5)

Man of the Match:  Raelin Carpenter

Our JV boys did not fair as well against a “JV” Charlotte Catholic side that looked to have been bolstered by some Varsity players.  With help from the Charlotte Tigers JV and playing an abbreviated match of 25 minutes, our JV Sabres were shut out 0 to 20.  JV rugby is less about winning and more about getting match experience and we saw some good things going on with our young Sabre ruggers.  Zach Ryan, Darius Gamble, Justin Martin and Gage McGee put in some massive work defensively making hard tackles and never backing down.  Great work Sabres!

– Coach Hayes

(Feb 24) South Meck jumped out to an early lead against West Meck in the 1st half to go into the halftime break up 19 – 7. But West Meck would come charging back to add 2 tries of their own in the 2nd half to tie the match at 19 a piece. A yellow card to West Meck with 4 minutes remaining would give South Meck just the opportunity they needed to end their second half scoring drought when freshman Seth Cobb-McGuffin would punch it into the corner with zeroes on the clock to put South Meck on top 24 to 19.
Great job to the South Meck HS Rugby Sabres!!! The unity and teamwork in this match was outstanding. The boys are discovering that the parity of this league means a tough match every week. The Sabres are in 2nd place in the league with a 3 – 1 record and must not forget that only the top 4 teams make it to the State playoffs.

Tries: Derwin Lewis, Robbie Franklin, Marcus Forney and Seth Cobb-McGuffin
Conversions: Raelin Carpenter (2)

Man of the Match: Marcus Forney (junior) / Marcus kept the boys focused on the match when things got chippy and provided veteran leadership with his hard style of running and high level work rate.

– Coach Hayes

My hat is off to South Meck HS Rugby for never quitting on Fri night (Feb 17) against a very determined, very tough Rocky River HS team.  We dug a hole for ourselves early but due to hard work, team work and determination the Sabres managed to claw their way back into the match and with zeroes on the clock were only one score away from stealing a victory on the road.  Final score South Meck 34 – Rocky River 40.  Upward and onward Sabres!!!

Coach Hayes

For those of you that made it out to Berry Academy on Friday night (Feb 10) under a full moon you witnessed South Meck HS put in an impressive performance against a very fast and physical Berry Academy HS with South Meck winning by a final score of 45 to 5.  In total, South Meck HS scored 7 tries and converted 5 of them thanks to excellent kicking by prop Taran Heise (senior) and with scoring coming from all across the pitch.  South’s defense was outstanding against Berry all night, a squad that has tremendous speed and elusiveness,  but a flat line defense and stellar one on one tackling by South kept Berry off the scoreboard save for a late try in injury time.  Worth noting is the coaches were able to get every player into the match.  Scoring / Tries:  Derwin Lewis, Keyon Barnes,  Sharome Henry, Connor Hayes, Jamel McClendon,  Brandon Sanders (2).  Conversions: Taran Heise  (5).  Man of the Match:  The starting first XV for South Meck

– Coach Hayes

The South Meck H.S. Sabres rugby team kicked off their third season of rugby on Friday night (Feb 3) against Ardrey Kell H.S. in the 2017 league opener of the single H.S. league in North Carolina at the Matthews Sportplex.  Ardrey Kell went up early in the match to take a 7 point lead, but the Sabres came storming right back putting in 4 tries in the 1st half. Ardrey Kell tightened up their defense in the 2nd half and held the Sabres scoreless but even with a late try by AK as time expired, the first half surge by South Meck was more than enough to secure the victory.  South Meck showed explosive speed on the outside with great set up play by the centers who exploited the space to draw defenders and then offload to their wings who finished.  Hard work in the tackles and breakdowns by the entire squad kept AK out of the try zone most of the night.  Final score South Meck HS 22 – Ardrey Kell HS 12

Man of the Match – Connor Hayes (junior, Captain).

Scoring – Donzavius Guy (2 tries), Jamel McClendon (1 try), Connor Hayes (1 try) and Taran Heise (1 conversion).

Halftime score – 22 to 7

Final score – 22 to 12

– Coach Hayes