The Huntington Beach Unicorns bounced back to winning form with a 54-14 spanking of Riverside in Week 3 action in the Southern California League Championship.

Playing at a windy Reid Park in Riverside, east of Los Angeles, the Unicorns took the lead after just three minutes with the first of their eight tries on the day and never looked back.

The Huntington Beach forwards laid the platform for the victory and were unrelenting against the Riverside pack. Samoan-born prop Henry Bloomfield led the way with a hat-trick of tries, all in the first half. Fullback Rex Harrison converted seven of the scores for a personal tally of 14 points.

For Riverside, second rower Dale Packer stood out in the losing side and was rewarded for his efforts with one of his team's two tries. Fullback Joel Hill, ex-University of California Santa Barbara, had a solid debut for Riverside injecting himself into the backline on many occasions and was reliable in defence.

The result sees the Unicorns improve to 1-2 on the season and keep alive their National clubs championship aspirations, but Riverside drops to 0-3 and is virtually out of the running.

Huntington Beach coach Richard Wheelans said the victory felt pretty good, "Every week we've gone forward, so that's good. The forwards did well, the pack stuck together and we stuck to our game plan and it all went well."

Riverside coach Bob McDonald said his club's main problem is player recruitment, "We're the only club that's based away from the beach, so unless they have a job out here and they live out here we can't keep them. We have to get through this season and see how we do, but it's going to be tough all year."

Elsewhere, the high-flying Belmont Shore topped Santa Monica 49-26. Fullback Ruan Walters had yet another good day with the boot, centre Bevan Leckner was inspirational pilfering ball at the breakdown, while prop Fili Lameta had another strong game.

Belmont's American-born flyhalf Mike Hercus arrived home during the week from a stint in Australia with the Gordon club in Sydney and marshalled the troops well. The homeside rallied late in the game scoring 14 points, but it was too little too late. Belmont Shore is now 3-0 on the season, while Santa Monica drops to 2-1.

In the other First Division matchup, OMBAC hosted Back Bay in San Diego and pleased the home crowd with a 46-7 victory. OMBAC scored six tries, two to scrumhalf Kenny Wilson, while flyhalf Alistair Steele kicked a penalty goal and five conversions for a total of 13 points.

OMBAC coach Bing Dawson said he's still experimenting with player