It was a wild weekend of rugby for the Leopards.  This weekend was the quarter final round of the High School Rugby Playoffs.  The East Varsity team earned the 5 seed and played number 4 seed Highland.  Highland defeated East earlier in the regular season.  The winner of the match would advance to the next round.  East was ready to go and they took a 14 to 0 lead in the first 10 minutes of the match.  Inoke Makoni made a great play kicking the ball out from deep in the East territory, chased down his kick and got the ball, passed it to a supporting Jake Kimball who then passed the ball back to him for the score.  It was great ball movement by the backs.  Kimo Mahina took another ball down the sideline for his first of 2 scores on the day.  Loa Kaufusi and Mo Mortazavi would add 2 more scores giving the Leopards a 24 to 0 lead with about 5 minutes left in the first half.  Highland would score just before the half making the score 24 to 5.  It was the best first half effort from the Leopards all season, excellent team effort.

The second half got off to a strong start.  Highland would strike first making the game within reach with a score of 24 to 12 for East.  Highland would kick from deep in their own territory and Inoke Makoni took the ball off the counter attack for the score.  Highland would score again.  The East counter attack executed great and Kimo Mahina saved a push out of bounds and turned it into another score.  With about 10 minutes left in the game East would score one more time to put the game out of reach.  Fa Toil returned a kick down the sideline.  As he was being tackled he passed the ball to a supporting Johny Fredrick who took it the rest of the way for the score.  The Final score for the match would be East 43 Highland 24.  It was the best the varsity team has played all season and it could not have come at a better time.  The varsity team will advance to the Final Four and play Snow Canyon.  East lost to Snow Canyon in the State Championship last year.