The Back Bay Sharks were about twenty minutes away from pulling off a major upset, but Belmont Shore's superior fitness allowed Southern California's top team to sail away with a 33-12 victory in Round Nine of the SCRFU winter competition.

The first quarter of the game was played at Shore's end of the field and virtually everything Back Bay did worked, then the home team reversed the trend and the remainder of the half was staged in Back Bay's part of the field.

The first forty minutes was a kicking duel between Belmont Shore's stand-in skipper Mike Hercus and Sharks' sharpshooter Matt Busko, formerly of San Diego State. Hercus slotted one penalty goal, while Busko landed three, the third being a 45 meter boomer right on halftime to give his side a 9-3 lead.

Hercus added to his tally nine minutes into the second term closing the gap to 9-6, but four minutes later Busko landed number four to put Back Bay up 12-6.

At about the sixteenth minute mark, Belmont Shore made a substitution with speedster Mike Okech coming onto the right wing, and he made an immediate impact. Shore won a lineout inside Back Bay's 22m and from there the ball was spun out wide to Okech who, with his first touch of the ball, broke a couple of tackles and dashed in to score. Hercus converted for a 13-12 Shore lead.

The US Eagle flyhalf kicked two more penalty goals, including a 40 meter shot, to extend his team's lead and then the dam broke. Belmont fullback Andrew Wind scored a try at the 34th minute mark, Hercus converted and Shore was out by 26-12.

Then right on full-time, referee Pat McNally awarded a penalty try to Belmont for a head high tackle on center Johnny Pua a meter out from the line. Hercus converted from right in front to end the scoring at 33-12. It was Shore's ninth straight win.

"In the first half they totally stuck it to us and put us out of our rhythm," noted Scrum's man-of-the-match Mike Hercus. "We know we're fit, we work hard to be fitter than other teams and once we got a little bit of a buffer, a few points, we decided to run it around."

For Back Bay, halves Chris Robinson and Pete Lamond played well in a beaten side. "We played 55 minutes or so against the team I think is going to win Super League this year and I'm proud as hell of my guys," commented Sharks head coach Scott Bracken. "We're working on fitness very hard right now and come playoff time I think we're definitely going to be a team to be reckoned with."

Elsewhere, OMBAC hammered Santa Monica 82-10. "An impressive scoreline, but we still have a lot of work to do," said OMBAC manager Mike Tracy.

In the other match, Las Vegas beat Huntington Beach 17-7.

League standings:
Belmont Shore 18
OMBAC 10
Santa Monica 10
Back Bay 8
Las Vegas 6
Huntington Beach 0