Brother Martin Holds Off St. Paul's
Brother Martin Holds Off St. Paul's
Although Southeast Louisiana had received over 12 inches of rain in the past four days, the rain paused long enough to allow Brother Martin and St Paul's to play at Hunter Stadium on the St. Paul's campus in the final week of Louisiana Rugby's regular HS season.
Since the Hunter Stadium surface was artificial the torrential rains over the past days were not a factor. St Paul's was much improved from its first game against Brother Martin, a game that Brother Martin won 48-12. St. Paul's has been working on the basics, tackling, running straight, and rucking hard.
Brother Martin started strong by kicking deep into St Paul's territory and regaining possession. They then used their hallmark pick-and-drives to get to the St Paul's line. St Paul's defended heroically, but after what seemed like 20 phases, senior No. 8 and captain Sam Vallejos was able to take a quick tap penalty from five meters out and score Brother Martin's first try. The conversion failed and Brother Martin led 5-0.
St. Paul's came roaring back, running straight and hard and winning their rucks. They drove all the way down the field and scored try to tie it up, with forward Ben Dufour scoring on a quick tap on a penalty. Right before halftime, aided by Brother Martin penalties, St Paul's drove down once again for a try, with Ducour going in on a pick-and-go but the conversion was missed and took a 10-5 lead into the break.
Brother Martin opened the half well with pick-and-drives getting them close to St. Paul's tryline. When the defense got sucked in, Brother Martin spun it wide to wing John Rink, who went over to tie the game at 10-10.
It was senior prop Jacob Schmidt who scored next after a series of pick-and-drives. Ben Corvers converted the try and the Crusaders held a 17-10 lead. Then off of a lineout the ball was fed to loose forward Andre Cook who offloaded beautifully to Rink, setting the wing up for a 50 meters run in for the try. The conversion was missed but Brother Martin held a seemingly comfortable 22-10 lead.
St. Paul's, however, was not finished and came back with a try of their own from Shawn Williams to narrow the score to 22-15. As time wore down, Brother Martin was awarded a penalty directly in front of the St Paul's posts and Rink sealed the victory with a penalty goal. Brother Martin won 25-15.
Brother Martin is now 6-0 in Louisiana Rugby league play and the #1 seed going into the playoffs.