Penn HS presented their longtime coach Bart Bottorff with a nice present Sunday as they defeated St. Edward to win the Midwest Championship tournament.
Penn, a regular contender for Indiana state, Midwest, and national titles struggled a little last season but bolstered their standing this past fall with a state 7s win.
Still they hadn't quite put it together this spring. Over the weekend they kind of figured it out. With Bottorff stepping down as Head Coach this year after almost three decades at the helm, the players wanted to make a bit of a statement for their outgoing coach. And they did.
After shutting out Chargers in the opening round and beating a tough Avon side 36-7, Penn took on a St. Edward team that had bottled up their opposition on their way to the final. Penn was able to get out and around St. Edward's defense to win 20-8.
"We kind of finally figured it out; something we've been trying to do for two years," said Bottorff. "We just started to play good rugby. We handled their kicking game well and were really good on the counter-attack. Our penalty count was atrocious, but we defended well and overall played well."
The key was after Penn scored going into halftime. St. Edward came right back and was right on the tryline. Penn somehow held them out and that was a big stop. The game, said Bottorff, might have been very different if St. Ed's had been able to score before the break.
