Gregory the Great Takes Rugby PA Title
Gregory the Great pieced together a intelligent and rapid-fire performance to defeat Doylestown for Rugby Pennsylvania’s Boys D1 high school championship.
Doylestown, having dismantled West Allegheny with a quick-offload, high-paced type of game to day before, had little answer as they struggled to maintain possession or put themselves in scoring position.
GGA, behind the playmaking, attacking flair, and goalkicking of flyhalf Eli Ziglinski, who scored two tries, converted two tries, and kicked four penalty goals. This sparked Gregory the Great to a 31-5 victory and a state championship.
“This was the most physical game I’ve played and the most fun I’ve had playing rugby,” said flanker Joseph Kirsteins, who was a force all day.
All-Ranked Matchups and Championships Highlight HS Weekend
Into championships time in Arizona, Maryland IAA, Kansas, and Pennsylvania, we also welcome the opening of the season for the Massachusetts IAA.'
That MIAA (you see we have two) starts up with the two best teams of the past eight years or so, BC High and Belmont Shore, facing off. Those two teams have won every state championships since 2014. MIAA will be playing with some COVID adjustments—exploded scrums, limits on mauls, and refs ensuring rucks happen quickly—but they're playing.
The Maryland IAA we preview here: Maryland Interscholastic Final Brings Longtime Rivals Back Together
Vienna Pushes Fort Hunt in Virginia
Fort Hunt held off Vienna 33-26 in a somewhat surprisingly close game in Rugby Virginia.
Fort Hunt ran out to a 21-0 lead before Vienna finally scored. Even then Fort Hunt replied and led 28-5 at halftime.
But Vienna made a few adjustments, and Fort Hunt suddenly were under pressure.
The game was played in the middle of a USA Rugby player identification camp, and several players from both sides participated in the camp before and after the game.
"It was a great day of rugby," said Fort Hunt Head Coach Dale Roach.
Vienna Head Coach Kendall Erickson said his team was a little too timid early on, saying the players were "a little taken aback by the Fort Hunt size and reputation. Half of our Vienna Varsity players were sophomores."
NorCal Latest: Surprises Keep Coming
The results continue to be all over the place in Northern California Boys HS competition.
Granite Bay
Granite Bay pulled off something of a surprise with a 17-15 defeat of Jesuit. It was a strange day for Granite Bay Head Coach Chris Miller, who captained Jesuit many years ago, now found himelf marshaling his team through a rebuild and a defeat of his old team.
"It was a very close and intense match," said Miller. "Jesuit is, obviously, well-coached, and their players are such tacticians and technically sound. They don’t make a lot of mistakes and they capitalize on yours. But what impressed me the most was how aggressive they played. We, on the other hand, didn’t handle the ball very well. We had too many errors in critical parts of the field and Jesuit."
Doylestown, GGA Win in Contrasting Rugby Pa Semis
It will be Doylestown vs Gregory the Great in the final of Rugby PA's Boys HS D1 championship after both teams won their semifinals on Saturday in Malvern, Pa.
The two semis could hardly have been more different.
Doylestown over West Allegheny
Doylestown put West Allegheny under constant pressure from the get-go in one semi. Using the hard-charging lock forwards Dan Boell and Gil Green, they punched down through the middle, and while they had support to hit the rucks, they also avoided getting too static by offloading constantly to runners coming from behind.
It worked, and West Allegheny was left scrambling. Doylestown scored quickly down the left side with the quick offloads and then did exactly the same thing, this time to get center Joe Mignon over.
Rugby PA Searches for Champions This Weekend
Rugby Pennsylvania’s playoffs begin and end this weekend with two intense days of competition.
The day starts with Youth semifinals and Junior semifinals.
The boys D2 then comes in with Media vs Berks/West Chester and Indiana vs Blackthorn
At 4-1 Media is the #1 seed.
The Girls semifinal is Moon Area vs Downingtown with the winner taking on Doylestown on Sunday in the final.
And the Boys semifinals are going to be interesting.
St. Joseph’s plays Gregory the Great. St. Joe’s lost to GGA in a preseason game but after that has looked strong and comes in as the #1 seed.
West Allegheny, 2-0 in conference play, faces Doylestown in the other semi.
Maryland Interscholastic Final Brings Longtime Rivals Back Together
It’s rematch time as the top two teams in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association league meet up.
Undefeated Calvert Hall takes on 3-1 Loyola Blakefield in the championship game, and while Calvert Hall might be considered the favorite, it’s worth pointing out that when the teams last met, on April 23, Calvert Hall emerged victorious by just one point, 27-26. The time before that was a non-league game in March, a 29-29 tie.
Loyola Blakefield’s first-year coach Danny Breda says it’s been a bit of a whirlwind season dealing with an intense rivalry and adjustments for COVID (which basically have meant no games outside the league).
“The rivalry with Calvert Hall has been fun,” enthused Breda. “Their coach Brandon Macpherson and I are friends and it’s the oldest Catholic school rivalry in the country, so the boys are definitely up for it.”
Jacksonville to Host Rugby Showcase
Teams from all over the Southeast will travel to Jacksonville, Fla. May 22-23 for a series of cross-border games.
The Florida Invitational Rugby Showcase will feature 15s games all weekend. The Charlotte Tigers, Raleigh Redhawks, Florida Jaguars, Wellington Wizards, and Jacksonville Wolverines will be there, with some of those clubs fielding younger-level teams as well.
The Charlotte Tigress, Redhawks, Aspetuck, and a Wellington Combined team will play in the girls competition, while there will also be a middle school series of games with Charlotte, Raleigh, Wellington, and the Jaguars.
Gamebreakers in HS Rugby This Week
We get some notable performances from some regions where we haven't seen a lot of info, such as Rugby Colorado's club season and Rugby Washington,
And that means we can recognize more players in more states, and we like that.
Here are our Gamebreakers for the weekend of May 8-9:
Clay Peters and Joey Jacobs, Avon
Unbeaten in Indiana, Avon defeated St. Xavier of Louisville behind a solid partnership between Peters at No. 8 and Jacobs at scrumhalf. They work brilliantly together getting the Avon offense running smoothly.
Lessons Learned Spark Ignatius Win Over Aspetuck
If you look at the early scores against major HS club teams, St. Ignatius might come across as just a pretty good school team, but one not at the level of the top teams in the nation, but as the season has progressed, the Wildcats' profile has changed, too.
After losing to the Charlotte Tigers 49-7 in their opener, and to Royal Irish 36-14 in April, Ignatius turned that around, beating Royal Irish at the Midwest Tournament 14-12 despite having their seniors back in Cleveland for Prom Night. A week later they met Aspetuck on neutral territory on a bitterly cold afternoon and beat the #5 HS Club 27-12. That victory, more than anything else, has vaulted Ignatius to a #2 ranking among school teams.
Boys 2021 HS Club Rankings Week 11
With Charlotte frustratingly idle this weekend we might have seen a new #1; what we would have needed then was for Genesis or West Valley to roll over the other in the same way Herriman rolled over Olympus in the Utah School final.
They didn't; it was, as expected, close. In the end, it's not enough, yet, for Genesis to unseat Charlotte. But both teams are going to Nationals in Kansas City so maybe we'll find out then.
Royal Irish didn't play and Aspetuck lost, so Woodlands moved up a notch and so did Thunder, which hasn't lost yet. Fort Hunt jumps up after another excellent showing and also after Xavier HS (NY) won big, thus saying more about Fort Hunt's win over Xavier a week before.
Boys 2021 School HS Rankings Week 11
Could anyone unseat Herriman? Yes, of course. The thing is, Herriman has to help by looking vulnerable.
This weekend in Utah's Varsity final, Herriman looked anything but vulnerable, dealing #14 Olympus a very convincing defeat. That's the sort of result that solidifies #1 rather than opens up a vulnerability.
Vienna Raising Hand in Virginia
Virginia rugby is getting going and we're already seeing a few teams come to the fore.
While it's no surprise that Fort Hunt has started strong, it is interesting to see Vienna start to emerge as one of the stronger programs in the area.
Head Coach Kendall Erickson is running a program that started with Under-7 players about nine years ago. Erickson, who coached in Utah for many years, realized when he arrived in Virginia that starting with the very young was how you build a program.
"Ten years ago Vienna High School Rugby was not on the map," said Erickson. "Our players and coaches have worked hard this past decade and we now have a strong Vienna HS Club Varsity team, JV team, two Middle School teams, Youth teams, and a good High School Girls team."
US Rugby Foundation Scholarships Open to Applicants
The US Rugby Football Foundation is opening up applications for five separate scholarships to support young rugby players as they continue their rugby in college.
Applicants must meet certain rugby and non-rugby requirements, and these scholarships will be in high demand so you will have to work hard to be on top of all of the information you submit.
Here are the scholarships:
The Terry O’Reilly Memorial Scholarship Program
Named after a successful rugby player and lawyer who served as a trustee of the US Rugby Foundation for over 20 years.
Always Intense, Genesis Edges West Valley For Utah Title
Genesis defeated West Valley Warriors Saturday in a clash of Top-4 High School Clubs which was also the final of Utah Youth Rugby's HS Club championship.
Every time Genesis and West Valley match up, everyone knows that it is going to be intense. These two teams have had a back-and-forth rivalry going since 2014 and the stakes are usually very high. This was true once again as the two teams locked horns on Saturday to determine the winner of the Utah Youth Rugby Tier 1 Multi-School championship.
Genesis Head Coach Eric Nelson knew from the first match from earlier in the year the importance of getting out in front early.
“When we played earlier in the season, we dug ourselves a hole and had to fight our way out of it to get the win. We knew that wouldn’t work this time around and we needed to start fast,” said Nelson.
