The Santa Barbara Stingrays u18 rugby squad dropped a preseason friendly with Mira Costa High School 35-29 on Saturday at Elings Park.
Isaiah Kitt opened the scoring for the Stingrays with a running try in the corner after beating several defenders. However, Mira Costa answered back with a pair of tries of their own to go up 10-5.
Manny Verdugo then powered through Mira Costa and converted his own try to put the Stingrays up 12-10.
Following a penalty by the Stingrays between their own posts, Mira Costa slotted a penalty to take the lead back at 13-12 heading into halftime.
Mira Costa came out of the break on fire, going up 20-12 to put more pressure on the Stingrays.
Santa Barbara responded well to that pressure, dominating the ensuing 20 minutes with strong defense and a dynamic offensive attack. Strong play from Marley Lammers, Davey Rissel and Oliver Andrews put the Stingrays up 24-20 to continue the back-and-forth affair.
With 10 minutes left to play, Mira Costa’s depth proved to be the difference as they ran in three consecutive tries to take the lead back at 35-24.
Kitt ripped off one more run before the final whistle to bring the game to its final score at 35-29 in favor of Mira Costa.
The Stingrays fielded six players who had never played the game of rugby along with a pair of freshmen in Santiago Garcia and Marco Fonte. Santa Barbara’s Man of the Match was Oliver Andrews.
