Boston College High capped off a perfect season with a 60-19 win over St. John’s Prep in a repeat of the previous year’s championship game.  

Just like in the 2016 season, the teams' only prior meeting was the first week of action. This year, the Championship was sanctioned by the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Aassociation (MIAA), the Massachusetts varsity governing body, and the match was played on a beautiful day at Endicott College on a wide pitch.  

BC High No. 8 Griffin Gildea scored the first two tries, the second of which came from a charged down kick by flyhallf Nick Sommer. Inside center Lucien Haikal scooped up the ball and was chased down by St. John’s defenders, only to find Gildea in support for the offload and try.  

BC High won the restart and marched down the field, using their hard nosed runners to attack inside channels and then exploiting the wide field.  Prop and captain Chris Troiano finished the drive with a pick from a ruck and dummy to create just enough space to dot down the ball.  

After a restart and back and forth play, Ryan Connolly found himself with the ball in hand after a single phase from a line out, and with space in front of him barreled over multiple St. John’s defenders to score his 15th try of the year.  Scrumhalf Alex Richards completed the five-try first half by recognizing St. John’s had no guard on the blind side of a ruck, carrying the ball 50 yards from the base of ruck to a score.  

St. John’s never gave up, and used their well-drilled pattern of spreading forwards throughout the field to capitalize on multiple BC High penalties.  After knocking on the doorstep, St. John’s scored to close the half, 25-5 in favor of BC High.

The first 15 minutes of the second half proved to be crucial as St. John’s Prep scored almost immediately to cut the lead to 25-12.  St. John’s applied sustained pressure as BC High struggled to regain momentum until St. John’s Prep failed to reorganize after a clearance kick.  Outside center Joe Dargon took an offload from replacement center Max McCullom and powered over for a try.  

From there, flanker Rob Lester and Flyhalf Nick Sommer scored tries in quick succession to put the game out of reach.  Where Sommer did not convert any tries in the first half, he notched all of his second halve conversions.  Alex Richards and Griffin Gildea scored another try each with little time left after St. John’s drove a maul over for their final score of the day.  

“Credit to St. John’s Prep for their toughness, fighting all game,” said BC coach Paul Carty.  “We knew they were well structured and I thought our defensive lines did a good job of pressuring and taking away space.  We have worked hard to implement our own structure and patterns and sharpen the skills needed to execute our game.  Ultimately, we used pattern, footwork, and passing to create space, and we then attacked that space ferociously.  I could not be more proud of this team and the way they approached this season.  It was a great year.”

This is BC High’s third state championship in three years.  

The day also included the Division 2 boys championship, in which Hanover High School upset Milton High School 29-20 for their first title, and the Girls Championship where Belmont High came back from a 14-5 halftime deficit to win 17-14.