St. Ignatius defeated St. Edward 17-7 this past weekend to win the Rugby Ohio Boys DI title.

Also on the weekend, Brunswick defeated Lakota for the DIAA championship, St. Joseph defeated Hudson to win the girls DI championship, Walnut Hill took the girls DII title over Medina, Perrysburg edged Rocky River, Ignatius beat St. Ed in the B-side final, and St. Edward took the U16 final over Ignatius.

In the Boys DI final, Ignatius really controlled the run of play in the first half. St. Edward had a tough time even getting to the Ignatius 22-meter-line.

"For the first time all season we got the backline that we had planned on playing this year with," said St. Ignatius Head Coach Dan Arbeznik. 

Senior captain Matt Lipaj (who had dislocated his kneecap in February) returned to run the offense and he was able to orchestrate some big breaks from inside center Sean Whalen and fullback Alex Chura. 

"Those guys put us close but some issues at the breakdown left a good number of scoring opportunities begging," said Arbeznik. 

Seven minutes into the game Ignatius lock Juan Pen showed some good ballhandling skills to dummy a defender and go over the line untouched.  Senior outside center Chris Fedor converted to make it 7-0. 

"While we pressured non-stop and our pack gave St. Ed's nightmares with our lineout and maul, St. Edward defended well and should be commended for keeping the halftime score to just 7-0," said Arbeznik. Junior Connor Forrestal and senior Jack Bradfield did a good job of kicking St. Edward out of trouble and the Edward chase was solid.

In the second half, Ignatius started to commit penalties and St. Edward punished them off a tap penalty play and, using their forwards, made it ovr in the corner. Connor Forrest converted the kick from the touchline to tie the game 7-7.  Ignatius guys responded quickly, and with their forwards on the front foot it was St. Edward that heard the referee's whistle.

Junior No. 8 Sean Soeder went over from short distance with eight minutes left, and Fedor converted to make it 14-7. Ignatius had opportunities to finish the game off with tries, but couldn't quite finish them off. Fedor did hit a late penalty to mak it 17-7.

"We take a lot of heart from the season," said Arbeznik, whose team was ranked #1 by Goff Rugby Report for some weeks before losing (unexpectedly) a league game to Moeller. They finished 17-3.

We take a lot of heart from the season.  We appreciate being ranked number one for few weeks and definitely deserved to drop after we lost to Moeller and Penn.  In the end we finished 17 and 3 on the season (the most games we've ever played) and our schedule included Cathedral (whose only loss was to us), Penn (2x), Gonzaga, KC Jr. Blues, Xavier, Saint Edward (2x), Georgetown Prep, ND LaSalette, plus 3 really good French teams.

"I was extremely proud of our kids for the match they played against Penn at Midwest," said Arbeznik looking back. "All of our seniors stayed in Cleveland for their prom and we were down some sophomores/juniors to injuries. We only had five true A-side starters for that contest and had seven sophomores out on the field for most of the game.  Still ... the game ended with us right at their line down only nine  It is comforting knowing that those 10th- and 11th-graders hung right with a team like Penn who took 3rd at Nationals."

Ignatius also beat Royal Irish, Xavier, KC Jr. Blues, Georgetown Prep, La Salette, and all three teams on their tour to France. They lost to Penn (a team they also beat), Gonzaga, and Moeller.

"For Moeller, it was definitely hubris," said Arbeznik. "We took them too lightly and they have athletic kids who can do athletic things. We made mistakes and they took advantage."

With over 100 players in the program and some obvious talent among the younger players, Ignatius will be good for years to come. St. Edward, winning the B-side final, can sa the same.