The two top teams in the Northern California DI club league as the undefeated Sacramento Lions faced off with the undefeated East Palo Alto Bulldogs.

With a likely 1^st seed in the Competitive Region 1 playoffs on the line, there was clearly much at stake.

On a damp pitch teams struggled to control the slippery ball, and this made for a relatively low-scoring first half.

The Lions scored first with a drop goal in the early minutes and shortly after converted a penalty kick to take a 6-0 lead.  But offensive opportunities were slim in the difficult weather.

The Bulldogs decided that with the ball tough to control they wouldn’t control it, and booted it downfield to exert pressure on the Lions. This worked well enough for the Bulldogs to get to the Sacramento line, but they were held up.

That seemed like a good plan, though, so EPA tried it again, and scored a try to take a 7-6 lead.

Sacramento continued to get solid possession from their scrums and lineouts, but had all sorts of problems extending that possession into something meaningful as the Bulldogs defense forced errors.

EPA extended their lead with a penalty, and after a long period of defense that only served to frustrate the Lions further, scored on an intercept.

East Palo Alto then won 23-6. With Olympic Club winning big 63-5 over the Bay Barbarians and SFGG winning over the Sacramento Capitals, there’s now a dogfight for 2^nd in the league. The Lions are still in 2^nd right now, but O-Club and SFGG are close behind, and one slip could put their opponents in place for a home playoff spot.