Victoria, BC: The Vancouver Island Rising Tide will advance to the BC Rugby Men's Under-20 Dunbar Keg provincial final after defeating Fraser Valley 36-29 on Saturday, July 16 at Parkland Secondary School in Sidney.

The Tide survived a late surge by Fraser Valley who ran in three tries in the final 15 minutes of play.

"Fraser Valley really gave us a scare," said a relieved Vancouver Island head coach Ken Goodland. "We built a huge lead and had a phenomenal middle 60 minutes of rugby, but we really took our foot off the gas in the last bit there."

Fraser Valley came out firing and led 5-0 early on when Jared Douglas crossed over three minutes in, with Curtis Giffin adding another score in the 38th minute. The Island squad found their footing going into the break, tallying two converted tries for a14-10 half time lead.

By the 65th minute, the Island were riding a comfortable 36-10 lead through tries from Vaughn Gaston, Kapi Vataiki, Blake van Heynin, Corey Walker and Carlin Hamstra. Hamstra, a Canadian Under-20 national team player, tacked on four conversions and a penalty for a game-high 16 points.

In the final 15 minutes, Fraser Valley exploded for three tries of their own with Cole Coventry, Pat Shields and Mattt Wazyiynko all crossing over. Neil McLagan converted two of three, to narrow the lead to 36-29.

"The game went back and forth with the tide gaining momentum late in the half. They kept the lead in the second due to a lack of discipline by us," said Valley head coach Marc Filiatrault. "[Our] boys finally regained the lead late in the second half but ran out of time. Both sides were very evenly matched."

Having already defeated the Vancouver Wave 46-24, the Vancouver Island Rising Tide will now advance to the provincial final on July 30th at Klahanie Park in West Vancouver.

After going 0-4 in last year's U20 provincial competition, Goodland and co-coach Roger Robinson are looking forward to seeing their players in the championship final.

"We are in, but we aren't out of the woods yet," said Goodland. "Fraser Valley really gave us a wake up call but I think we'll be ready for the final."

The Tide will play the winner of Fraser Valley versus Vancouver Wave, the final Dunbar Keg round robin match scheduled for Friday, July 22nd at Crush Crescent in Langley.

2011 BC U20 Dunbar Keg Schedule
Sat. July 9: Vancouver Island Rising Tide 46 - 24 Vancouver Wave
Sat. July 16: Vancouver Island Rising Tide 36 - 29 Fraser Valley
7:00pm - Fri. July 22: Vancouver Wave at Fraser Valley (Crush Crescent, Langley)
Sat. July 30: Dunbar Keg Provincial Final (Klahanie Park, West Vancouver)

Dunbar Keg Competition
Three regional representative teams will contest for the historic Dunbar Keg this summer in the revamped British Columbia Rugby Under-20 Championship. The Vancouver Wave, Fraser Valley and Vancouver Island Rising Tide will compete in a round-robin competition, accruing points towards a championship appearance on July 30th. These three teams had previously competed against one another in the Pacific Conference of the now-annulled Rugby Canada Junior National Championship.

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