Old Rivals Gonzaga and St. Ignatius Meet in Cleveland St. Ignatius of Cleveland hosts Gonzaga of Washington DC Saturday in Ohio and this is one of the better rivalries in IS rugby. For years Ignatius passed up chances to go to HS Nationals and instead one of their benchmarks for a great season was beating Gonzaga—this is something they did frequently enough for Gonzaga to circle this game every year. In 2021 they finally met at Nationals, with Ignatius beating the Eagles in the semifinals—Gonzaga would go on to take third and Ignatius 2nd to Herriman. The next year Ignatius beat Gonzaga in the national final, but in 2023, while they met, as usual, in the regular season (a convincing win for Gonzaga) they didn't meet at the national championship as Ignatius lost a close game to Jesuit Sacramento in the semis.
Marquee HS Games and Tournaments Cap March The marquee game for this week is probably Gonzaga at St. Ignatius. This is a longtime rivalry where each team provides the other with one of their biggest challenges in the regular season. This week Gonzaga comes in on a bit of a high, ranked #1 and unbeaten so far with a victory over a very strong Charlotte Cardinals team. St. Ignatius appears to be a work in progress, as they have a couple of big wins under their belts, but also a somewhat humbling loss to Pendleton which pointed directly to issues in finishing off scoring chances. Still, it promises to be a good contest. Old Rivals Gonzaga and St. Ignatius Meet in Cleveland Oddly, GRR will not be there as we'll be in St. Louis for the All-Catholic tournament held at SLUH, where we get to see some flyover country talent.
Xavier Logs Impressive Early-Season Win Xavier HS of NY defeated Connecticut-based Aspetuck over the weekend in a well-played clash of two teams with national championship aspirations. Both Xavier's 1st and 2nd sides took wins on St. Patrick’s Day. Junior lock Hanoi Nelson, who scored Xavier’s first A-side try, described the victory over Aspetuck best, saying “we came out explosive and we didn’t let up.” Xavier dominated the first half against the perennial club team powerhouse from Connecticut, scoring four tries in the first half with senior center Benedetto Loria, sophomore flanker Liam Averill, and senior wing Matthew Verengia each adding to Nelson’s score in the first half. Loria kicked two conversions on a windy day at Aviator Field that played havoc when the ball was in the air.
Boys School Top 50 2024: Week 11 No major changes in the Top 15, but plenty of movement elsewhere. La Salle, Bishop Dwenger, and St. Joe's Prep all join the Top 50. La Salle's win over Georgetown Prep is definitely a head-turner. Pelham's win over Fairfield Prep is another, and prompted a move of 18 spots upward for Pelham. Gregory the Great also moved up eight spots and St. Xavier, thanks to a close loss, moves up 10 spots. There is still a LOT of rugby to be played, so watch out.
Boys HS Club Top 50 2024: Week 11 We cover a lot of what went on in HS rugby in a recently-posted survey of the country's HS action. HS Boys Developments Around the USA But of course the main event that affects these rankings is the tour Woodlands took of Southern California. Woodlands Goes 2-0 on Tough SoCal Trip Beating Belmont Shore, on the road, has to see the Texas team take #1. There's really no doubt about that. SOC Raptors moved up after a win over Thunder. Richmond moves up after a strong showing vs Raleigh Redhawks. Several teams from leagues that weren't in action move up after starting well, and they move past teams that weren't playing. We'll see more of that. This coming week, the Cascade Conference starts up in the PNW. Valor has a big game vs Regis Jesuit in Colorado. The Tigers play Cardinals in Charlotte and they also have a game against War Eagle. Marin plays Danville in NorCal.
HS Boys Developments Around the USA Here's a quick look at some of the HS games and leagues from around the nation. Boys HS Scores from this past weekend>> Utah Already we're seeing who are the top dogs in Utah, and we got a sense of that at the Puriri Memorial Tournament a few weeks ago. LCA 14-5 over East in an imperfect but enjoyable game. @UtahYouthRugby pic.twitter.com/yOtVEf8SnK — Alex Goff (@goffrugbyreport) February 24, 2024 Herriman and East are 2-0 while Layton Christian looked very impressive in defeating Highland 50-5 in their league opener. Those are the top three teams right now. East did the job this past weekend with No.
Raptors vs Thunder Highlights SoCal Weekend SOC Raptors, Belmont Shore, and the San Diego Mustangs all won in Southern California's HS Club season as all three moved to 2-0. For Belmont Shore, the defending HS Club National Champion, their win was fairly straightforward, 59-0 over Rancho Cucamonga and a rebound from a close loss to touring Woodlands earlier in the week. San Diego won big, as well, defeating Back Bay 56-7. Things were a little tighter for the Raptors, who edged Thunder Rugby 38-33. The Raptors, too, were rebounding from a loss to Woodlands (see more about the Woodlands tour of SoCal here: Woodlands Goes 2-0 on Tough SoCal Trip) "As we planned out our season, we wanted to make sure our teams played the best team in the country," said SOC Coach Sam McMillan.
Vienna Wins HS Nationals Play-In Over Fort Hunt Vienna defeated Fort Hunt in a game that likely secured a place at HS Nationals for the winner. Fort Hunt started the game kicking deep into the Vienna 22, but Vienna answered with some good ball-handling and running the ball back. They were halted, finally, but a tackle into touch from Fort Hunt fullback Miguel Lopez—who was a Vienna youth player and played for Vienna's HS team through last year. Vienna kept on the pressure and after regaining possession flanker Luke Jarvis charged back into the Fort Hunt end. Once again Lopez swooped in to make a key tackle, and also knocking the ball loose. Finally a 40-meter line break by lock Martin Keller got Vienna back on the front foot. Quick ball led to a grubber through and hooker Sawyer Behind raced in to gather the ball and pass to Jarvis.
De La Salle Downs Granite Bay in NorCal In a clash of two of the strongest teams in Northern California, De La Salle (GRR #2 School Team) defeated Granite Bay (GRR #9 HS Club). This was a very tight battle throughout, but the DLS defense held sway, limiting Granite Bay to just the one penalty goal in a 19-3 win. De La Salle were coming off a well-take victory over Shawnigan Lake—De La Salle Defeats Touring BC Team—but had a couple of injuries coming out of that game, too.
Late Kick Sees Pelham Past Fairfield Prep In a clash of well-regarded school teams in the Northeast, Pelham held off Fairfield Prep 17-14 Saturday in Connecticut. The game started well for Pelham, as they made ground right off the kickoff. They ran through for 25 meters and some good hard running off the next phase put them through for another 15. uUt they didn't score after a cross-field kick was blown straight out by the wind. Fairfield got out of that and pressures Pelham, and the teams changed momentum back and forth. Later on Pelham once again broke through off a scrum move. Once again Fairfield halted the charge. But Pelham kept up the pressure and earned a penalty.
Eastside Sends Nationals Message in Rugby Washington Win Eastside won impressively over Camas this weekend, taking a game between two of the strongest teams in the state of Washington, and perhaps more than that. This game was tabbed by the Boys HS National Championships Committee as part of a play-in series involving Eastside, Camas, and Rainier. All three had applied to the championship, and the play-in option is often afforded to teams who are set to play each other anyway. Already Eastside had beaten Rainier 29-5, and while Camas had not played the Highlanders, they had played, and beaten, Liberty, and Liberty had tied Rainier. So certainly the result between these two would decide something, with Eastside likely to clinch a place at the national tournament with a win. From the opening whistle, the Eastside Lions established their dominance, swiftly encroaching into Camas territory.
Gonzaga Holds Off Charlotte Cardinals in High-Intensity Matchup In a meeting of the #1 Boys school team and the #4 HS Club, Gonzaga defeated the Charlotte Cardinals 36-27 on the campus of Hampden-Sydney College Saturday. Charlotte capitalized on some Gonzaga handling errors in the Eagles' 22 and ran out to an early 15-5 lead. "A fantastic effort from our boys this being their first full game of the season," said Charlotte Head Coach Jason Zhemke. "We started well and we ended well. I guess we've got work to do in the middle." "All credit to [Head Coach Peter Baggetta] and the Gonzaga boys," added Zhemke. "They are a quality team with great structures and discipline. They are exactly what we expected of them." Charlotte's U16s and B sides did garner wins over Gonzaga. For Gonzaga, Brody Johnson, the MVP of the 2023 HS National Championship final, scored four tries.
Neuqua Holds Off Touring SLUH St. Louis University High is on tour in Illinois and opened up their tour with a defeat at the hands of Neuqua Friday night. Neuqua took a very nice step forward after a not-so-great showing at the Carolina Ruggerfest—to be fair they had barely got outside for training before that tournament. This was a close and well-contested match through 50 minutes. Neuqua defended well but were also guilty of infringing and SLUH did punish those infractions, taking a 6-0 lead on two penalty goals. Neuqua finally got over the line to take a 7-6 lead, but SLUH responded with a try—what would be their only try of the day—and to lead 13-7. As the first half wrapped up Neuqua charged into scoring position as just as the Wildcats were going to score, a high tackle turned that into a penalty try and Neuqua took a 14-13 lead into the break.
Nelson College Scholarship Recipients React to Award
GRR caught up with the new Nelson College Scholarship recipients JW Sarkees and Connor Bender.
The two will join the New Zealand school to study and play rugby in April and stay through the Northern Hemisphere summer. It will be a unique, once-in-a-lifetime experience for both.
Sarkees plays for the Greer 76ers in South Carolina and has suited up for Eagle Impact Rugby Academy. What he wants to do first of all is show he gets a lot of work done around the paddock.
"I'm super excited," he told GRR. "Rugby, it's a really big part of my life and I'm just playing whenever I can. I'm really, really hard working; I try and get what needs to be done done."
You can see more of the interview with JW Sarkess here:
Two HS Players Receive Nelson College Scholarship Awards
The U.S. Rugby Foundation is pleased to announce it has granted Nelson College Rugby Scholarships to Connor Bender of Cleveland, Ohio, and Joseph Walter “JW” Sarkees of Central, South Carolina.
Connor and JW will spend four and one-half months over the spring and summer of 2024 attending Nelson College, a high school in Nelson City, New Zealand, which offers a unique, even by New Zealand standards, track of elective Rugby Curriculum courses as part of their already highly competitive program of academic courses.
The goal of the USRF’s Nelson College Rugby Scholarship program is to advance the personal, cultural, and academic development of the scholar athletes while providing them the opportunity to become better rugby players and use their experience in New Zealand to influence and elevate the play of their high school teammates upon their return.
