YSC Reporter: Kevin Sullivan – Voracious All Blues Vapulate Valiant Keystone in Vallejo – Berkeley 72 Keystone 10 [VIDEO]

View the complete 2011 WPL Schedule and Results here.

by Kevin Sullivan of Rucking Insurance:

On Saturday, Barbo’s Morton Field in sunny Vallejo hosted a 72 to 10 flogging of Keystone by the Berkeley All Blues. The ABs cracked 11 tries in 80 minutes, creating a new fetish item: the cat-o-eleven-tails…

#11 Jaymie Schulke. whipped down from the left wing to slap a 5er only 4 minutes into the game. Jaymie converted that try, doted another self converted try 5 minutes later, plus 2 other conversions, and a penalty, for a tidy 21 points on the day.

Keystone struggled to get a consistent set of phases going. The forward pack made 6 line breaks on the day, offloading in the tackle like the All Blacks, but once the ball visited the backline, #7 Phoebe Boone and #2 Katy Augstyn (RuckingInsurance.com employee!) goaded turnovers. Why Keystone didn’t kick for position and pound with their larger pack is a mystery? #3 Stacy Baker submitted both Keystone tries, the first coming from a gorgeous Paul Emmerick-esque intercept over 50m and out. The second, late at the 72nd minute, was the profit of an 8 phase goal line stand, a penalty quick tap, traded turnovers, and spun pass to Baker. The ABs pack should note that fullback Ashley English gave a clinic on how to stop pick’n’go drives and offloads. Learn.

A great deal of blue collar work came from the AB pack, especially from prop Georgi Ellis. Scrums were solid, but the #9 Jossy “Dr. J” Tseng had a few challenges translating the ball to #10 Nathalie “The Merchant” Marchino. Lineouts were static, but won mostly on throw.

Saturday’s rod came from the ABs realizing that they could wrap tries in from their backline, where 8 of 11 were recorded. Along with Schulke’s 2, Kelly “IsoGardner” Griffin had 2 herself, displaying fantastic footwork, 2 from #14 Victoria Folayan, 1 from #12 Lucy Croy, and a lovely, heart-felt stiff-arm from #10 Marchino. Note that #14 is faster than instant coffee in a microwave, she chased down positional kicks resulting in 4 turnovers.

Boone was awarded two yahtzees from a penalty quick tap and a tighthead turnover. I wonder if she thanked her props…which leads me to…A Tight Five TRY! Kicking deep after floundering phase play, the isolated Keystone fullback yielded another of her 4 turnovers. One resulted in a LOCK TRY for #4 Katie Chou (IMHO, all Tight Five tries should count triple, the game should be immediately ended, and the front rower carried on the shoulders of her teammates to the nearest pizzeria with a beer pitcher special.)

Coach Kathy Flores was stoic with the victory. Considering the double digit handling errors for the ABs, I suspect some extra “conditioning” at this week’s training.

Coach Brandon Sparks commented on all the good problems that the team currently has, especially noting that three main starters watched today, which included the venerable Liz Terry and the NYT Sunday Crossword 81 Across answer. “We’ve got to tighten up our set piece, get fitter, and implement our system if we expect to win hardware.”

Looks like the ABs Coaching staff will be vapulating the All Blues a bit this week…

Match Video

2nd Half

View the complete 2011 WPL Schedule and Results here.