Southwest United high school rugby team wins 3A provincial title

By Frank McTighe

Southwest United brought the first-ever 3A high school boys rugby sevens provincial championship home Saturday, May 24.
United beat West Island College Wolves 33-17 in the championship game at St. Albert to win the 3A provincial title.
Based in Fort Macleod, Southwest United has players from F.P. Walshe School, Willow Creek Composite High School in Claresholm, Matthew Halton High School in Pincher Creek and Livingstone School in Lundbreck.
United 26 Spartans 7
Southwest United got off to a strong start in the provincial tournament with a 26-7 win Friday, May 23, over Strathcona-Tweedsmuir Spartans from near Okotoks.
Sylar Sabey led the United attack, scoring three tries and kicking one convert for 17 points.
Kael Smith scored the other United try and Zak Wright kicked two converts.
United 35 Raiders 19
In their second game Friday, United beat Holy Rosary Raiders, from Lloydminster, 35-19.
Zak Wright was an offensive force for United in this game, scoring three tries and booting four converts for 23 points.
Ruan Peterson scored two tries for United and Briggs Baker kicked one convert to round out the scoring.
United 28 Crusaders 12
Southwest United completed round-robin with a 28-12 win over Westmount Crusaders from Calgary on Friday afternoon.
Four players scored tries for United as they went 3-0 to place first in their pool.
Zak Wright had a try and three converts for 11 points and Ruan Peterson, Lander Hurst and Tyce DeJong each scored one try.
United placed first in Pool B, followed by Strathcona-Tweedsmuir, Holy Rosary and Westmount.
West Island College topped Pool A, followed by West Central, Edwin Parr and Peace River.
United 40 Rebels 7
Their first-place finish in their pool sent Southwest Untied into a semifinal game Saturday against the West Central Rebels from Rocky Mountain House.
Sylar Sabey and Zak Wright each scored two tries as United rolled past West Central 40-7 to advance to the championship game.
Zak Wright also kicked one convert for a 12-point game.
Ruan Peterson and Tyce DeJong also scored tries for United and Briggs Baker kicked three converts.
United Wolves
The win sent United to the championship game Saturday afternoon, which pitted them against West Island College Wolves from Calgary.
The Wolves, who had defeated United for the provincial title in 2024, had advanced by beating Holy Rosary 58-12 in the other semifinal.
United wasted no time getting out in front as Ruan Peterson scampered 60 yards for the game’s first try on the opening play.
Zak Wright converted and United led 7-0.
Wright made it 14-0 with a converted try but the Wolves replied with a try off a trick line-out play.
Tyce DeJong raced 30 yards to the corner to extend United’s lead to 19-7 at halftime.
Shortly after the kickoff Sylar Sabey took the ball from a ruck and outran two defenders on the outside to score. Briggs Baker’s convert made it 26-7.
Then Kael Smith made a line break and ran for 20 yards while fending off the Wolves before offloading to Zak Wright, who raced 40 yards to the score, adding the convert to make it 33-7.
West Island College got the game’s final try off a turnover as the clock ran out.