Santa Monica Women Dominate the Surfers

On a crisp Saturday afternoon, the Santa Monica Women hosted their first home game against the San Diego Surfers. The Lady Phins dominated from the start with a try from newly minted flanker Rebecca “Skipper” Dickerson and conversion from center Jacki Bercovici (7-0). Bercovici continued to make an impact by following up with two additional tries of her own with strong running and exceptional support from the backline and loose forwards (one conversion good, 19-0).

San Diego answered deep into the first half when their fullback broke the line. (Conversion good, 19-7.) Undeterred, Santa Monica rallied and forced a turnover and used their speed to pick the pace of the game up. Dickerson was awarded a penalty try 3 minutes after the Surfers’ score when she quickly picked and ran (stopped short by a ponytail grab). Bercovici’s conversion was good and the half ended with a score of 26-7.

Santa Monica continued its strong defense into the second half. The forwards provided good, clean ball to the backs, allowing speed and quick hands to do their work. Tia Blythe brought in a try for Santa Monica (conversion good by Bercovici, 33-7). This was followed by a beautiful cross field kick by Bercovici chased down by Becky “Bunz” Hearn for another try (38-7). Blythe once again found an opening and took the ball for a long 70 meter run down the pitch, adding another try to the Santa Monica scoreboard (43-7). The Surfers scored once more in the last minute of the match (conversion good), bringing the final score to 43-14.

This brings the league record to 3-1 for Santa Monica. The Lady Phins’ remaining two regular season games will be 4/5 against Belmont and 4/12 against Tempe.